Learning through ICT in Swedish Early Childhood Education from a pedagogical perspective of quality

Childhood Education, 2003 by Sheridan, Sonja, Samuelsson, Ingrid Pramling

At this level, the teacher encourages children to send E-mail, to use the Internet for information searches, and to write and illustrate their own stories on the computer. Several studies show that interaction and guidance from the teacher is critical for helping young children create technically advanced stories that are animated and incorporate sound (Klerfelt, 2002; Klerfelt et al., 1999b). However, experience from the ITiS project and other studies show that instead of recording the voices of children while documenting their pictures or drawings, teachers more often write what the child says and scan the text (Klerfelt et al., 1999b).

It is also the teacher's responsibility to create possibilities for children to use computers, both by themselves and together with peers. Children have a need to express their experiences and must be able to do so, using computers to communicate with both adults and their peers. Cooperation and learning together with peers stimulate both dialogue and reflection, and collaboration between children stimulates exploration and experimentation (Damon & Phelps, 1989). It is also important for a child to be able to make his or her own reflections, interpretations, and judgments. During all of these activities, teachers must engage themselves to make sure that children put words to their own learning processes and develop an ability to express what they see, hear, and feel (Alexandersson & Pramling Samuelsson, 1998).

Many Swedish preschools have reached this good level of quality. Still, at this level the computer is not an integrated part of other activities in preschool, and its uses can be described as learning by doing various activities with the computer, compared to learning through the computer (Alexandersson et al., 2001).

A High Level of Quality. To be truly skillful users of ICT, children must develop a critical attitude and an ability to evaluate programs and the information presented through them. From a Swedish perspective, a very high level of quality would represent children using computers and ICT equipment throughout the day as a multifunctional tool that is integrated with other activities and themes.

At a high level of quality, the children learn through the computer and from each other while using a variety of programs or creating their own. They explore new topics, are creative in their search for information on Web sites, ask questions, and express their reflections and feelings. With help from the teachers, they learn to discern between what is realistic and what is impossible in the real world, yet possible in the virtual world (Alexandersson et al., 2001). The children focus on understanding various phenomena as well as controlling and mastering functions of different programs.

At this high level of quality, teachers interact with and guide the children. They create possibilities in which ICT can be used to support children in developing new experiences and to expand their understanding of the world. The teacher starts by reviewing what is known to the children; he or she moves on to the unknown by directing the children's attention towards a variety of images and relating them to real situations and phenomena, and then encouraging them to reflect about unique characteristics, patterns, similarities, etc.