Classroom of the Future - Research Education Current Projects

Background. Technology is beseeming a subgross part of childrens lives. From schoolroom settings to internal utilise, computers are at once a part of how children learn, play, and communicate. A recent internal survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation of wholly over 1,000 children ages twain to septet revealed that 62% of children guide computers at home. accord to the bailiwick inculcate Boards Foundation, the most plebeian reason parents invoke for buying home computers is their childrens education. Our schools are as yet being judged establish on the dimension of students to computers. This ratio has been utilise to determine the world power of schools to provide part education. Computers are an definitive part of childrens lives, even off those junior complete to attend pre-school. What is not as choke is when children should confirm assenting to these technologies. Educators are besides questioning what technologies children should search. many dou bt whether placing a computer niche on a desktop is an clutch way to communicate time with a young restless child. According to the National Association for the nurture of Young Children, educators should playing field the effects of applied science and practise applied science if it can service children. \n at that place is a clear mandatary from the education union to question what technologies lounge around made and how they are used with children. At the same time, technologists requisite to question what educational strategies their teaching tools promote. instantly there is an wildness placed on learning models that birth the active construction of knowledge and skills. There has been a respite from educational environments which assert the passive encyclopedism of isolated facts, to environments in which the learner actively explores the world and constructs their admit internal models of understanding. From an archeozoic age, children physically explor e by building with blocks, digging in sandboxes, and drawing peeled ideas. Activities such as these support the using of skills which include: originative problem-solving, collaborative learning, communicatory design, and conceptual abstraction. \nGoals. fancy the unique necessitate of young children (ages 3-6) in learning environments. intermit bracing technologies in partnership with children and teachers. move up strategies for teaching in a engineering science-infused other(a) puerility education environment. Understand the stupor these technologies can be possessed of on young children and their early childhood educators. Project. Year 3: Study changes in teachers and children Year 4: Make applied science available to the existence and continue engine room use in classrooms Year 5: Publish nett query findings authoritative Work Our research began in January of 2001. Since that time, we dupe observed all of the classrooms at the CYC and the iv kindergarten c lassrooms at siege of Yorktown Elementary School. Our aspiration has been to understand the natural action patterns of the children and teachers and to understand how they use technology. We book conducted two sets of interviews at the CYC and i set of interviews at Yorktown. In addition, we have had several meetings with the teachers at both schools. in concert we have discussed new approaches to integrating technology into the curriculum. Our team introduced software system applications that the teachers can use with their classes. We are now analyzing the data we have collected. \n