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Let’s Put Technology In Its Place In Early Years Learning; Apps Are Not Silver Bullets

Yes, kids can work wonders on iPads and smartphones, but let's not forget that technology should serve learning

Chris Williams
by Chris Williams
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In my presentations about my approach to language learning, I often show early years professionals a short film of Josie, the youngest daughter of a close colleague.

It features the two-year-old playing with an iPad, taking photos, exploring apps and listening to music. When people see this their initial reaction is overwhelmingly positive. “Yes!” they say. “Children today can do anything. They’re teaching us!’

At this point I have to point out that because Josie is using the iPad she’s not talking to her sister, and that left alone she would remain immersed in the device.

Unfortunately, I’ve seen this misapprehension in several early years educational settings. Children are left alone to play on educational apps with little or no intervention or guidance from adults. Adults like to think that the child is engaged, when in fact the opposite is true – the youngster is actually disengaged with people, with play and with his surroundings.

The best early years settings – and there are many – know that technology does have a role to play, but as a background tool, an enabler for learning, rather than the be-all and end-all.

The Education Endowment Fund’s 2012 report, The Impact of Digital Technology sounds a similar note. It tells us that “in researched interventions, technology is best used as a supplement to normal teaching rather than as a replacement for it. This suggests some caution in the way in which technology is adopted or embedded in schools.”

I firmly believe that where technology is used, it should be as a servant to learning. Technology is definitely an incidental part of what we are doing with Chatta, a learning programme designed to improve spoken language in the early years. The more profound and unique aspects of our approach are those that centre on the elements of the learning process that help children to become confident communicators.

As the EEF’s early years toolkit tells us, “technology on its own is unlikely to have impact; it must be accompanied by a change in pedagogy to improve learning”. It is by getting the learning process right – and not relying on the technology for answers or solutions – that we can ensure children develop the skills they need to become confident and healthy young people.

Our approach uses technology to capture memorable experiences and the oral narratives that surround those experiences. But, much more significantly, it is the practitioner who uses the imagery and recordings to model language, encourage listening and reflection, engage parents and monitor progress.

Twenty years ago this same process could have been supported by a good old analogue tape recorder, and, if it was used correctly, good progress would have been achieved. We shouldn’t be fooled – iPads and their like have not created a revolution in learning outcomes by themselves. The technology changes, but ultimately it is the informed and skilled practitioner, properly trained in the use of technology to support teaching and learning aims, who secures children’s learning and progress.

We’re piloting our approach to language development in schools and early years settings in Hull, East Yorkshire, Essex and Cheshire, and it is now being used in nursery and reception classes and with SEN children from reception to Year 4 at Bellfield Primary in Hull.

Putting technology firmly in its place as a servant to learning is already having a powerful impact on individual children at Bellfield. “We have a four year old girl with EAL who was very quiet when she came to us in September,” says assistant headteacher Anna Howard. “She was finding language very difficult, especially positional language. She needed something to encourage her to start talking, so I used the programme one to one with her on a few occasions. As she loves cats, I showed her a series of pictures of one in different positions around a room, and asked her to say where the cat was each time. She would try, and I would then model the language, saying things like ‘the cat is on the sofa’ and she would repeat it.

“Over several sessions, this approach of saying, modelling and repeating has really helped her in her language development. Now, she is only a small step behind the other children. You can hear the progress she has made in the way she talks to the other children.”

Technology does have a proper part to play in early years learning – but we have to make sure that it is in a supporting role rather than front of stage.

Chris Williams is an experienced primary teacher who, with former teaching colleague David Williams, has established Chatta, a programme designed to accelerate progress in early language development in early education using audio visual technology. Further information is available at chatta.co.uk and @hellochatta.

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