Information Technology in Childhood Education (2001) The Current Status of Technology in Education: Lightspeed Ahead with Mild Turbulence MICHAEL F. KALINOWSKI University of New Hampshire Department of Family Studies Durham, NH 03824 USA [email protected] The article summarizes five trends in technology for children aged 12 and younger, identifies four current issues, and three unresolved needs related to technology and children; pro- vides six selected hardware and 30 software recommenda- tions, and offers several resources: journals and magazines, educational technology websites, software publishers, and hardware companies. During 2000, the greatest innovations were in infrastructure that will enable children to connect more quickly, interact more flexibly, respond more intuitive- ly, and use computers more creatively. As innovations pro- ceed, dramatic improvements in software for children, and continued discussion about what is relevant or appropriate is likely to be witnessed. Recent Trends The Internet trend. As my friend Warren Buckleitner, Editor of Children’s Software Review (CSR) is fond of saying, “No one will uninvent the Inter- net; it ain’t going away. If you’re a teacher with no email, no web site, and no web access, you’ll soon be in info darkness.” This is what is coming: 1999, according to the research firm eMarketer, 14 million children aged two to 12 in the U.S. had Internet access. Jupiter Communications predicts 282 Kalinowski that by the end of 2000 this same age group outnumbered teens and college students online and the current percentage of children now online will al- most double in the next five years (PC Almanac, 2000)! New software dem- os are now available as free downloads and soon much children’s software may be available by fee based downloads. Eventually software may shift from being a physical product to a continuous service delivered over the In- ternet (Lohr, 2000). Website development quality is improving. (See for ex- ample, Germany’s software publisher Tivola.) Sites for teachers, parents and children are exploding. Even for a program on a relatively tight budget, the ability to obtain a computer and Internet access through a modem for $25.00 a month (People PC) may now make sense. The digital trend. Software applications, which used to arrive on disks and now come on CD-ROMs, will begin to arrive on DVDs. Soon we’ll also be able to download video almost as easy as people now download increasing- ly better sounding MP3 music (Spanbauer, 2000). Americans will buy an estimated 22 million digital cameras annually by 2003 (Graham, 2000). These will continue to drop in price and be increasingly used for documen- tation of individual development, curricular projects, simple web site devel- opment, or as the first step in a web or hard drive based storage system. The voice-enabled trend. Speech production is an important component of many recent software programs in which stories, including those written by children in classrooms can be read aloud. New research on wireless phone technology (Gilpin, 2000, Howe, 2000) to enable a caller to use speech in accessing Internet sites, is likely to trickle down into children’s software programs. Soon even a young child may be able to tell the computer, “I want to play with Clifford and paint with Monique” and be taken directly to “Monique’s Word Painting” in Clifford Reading by Scholastic. The wireless trend. Wireless technology frees us from cords that connect a keyboard, a mouse, a printer or scanner, or even a handheld computer. LeapFrog’s new LeapPad Pro, a touch sensitive notebook should become one example of the fusion of wireless technology and speech production. Wireless will encourage greater variations in the arrangement of space, en- able a greater distance between user and monitor, and allow teachers to share computer based information more easily with groups. Wireless will have profound influences on how we interact with technology. Look at what wireless TV controllers have done for toys. The Current Status of Technology in Education 283 The learningware or smart toy trend. Learningware includes a variety of products that don’t tether children to computers: talking books, interactive globes, and construction sets to make robots (Graham, 2000). A Smart Toy is built around software. It allows a manufacturer to create a program that bypasses a computer, and is inserted into a toy directly. According to CSR, the hallmarks of a smart toy, “include the ability to talk, to turn itself off, [and] to record information about a child… The smartest smart toys can customize themselves to an individual child, remember what a child has done, or be recharged with new content” (November/December 2000, p. 16). Five examples of smart toys include, (a) Microsoft’s Intelli-Table for toddlers, (b)Leapfrog’s Explorer Globe, (c) Hasbro’s Easy-Bake Kitchen CD-ROM Playset for primary-aged children, (d) Mattel’s Interactive/In- tel’s ME2CAM, and (e) Lego Mindstorms Dark Side Developer Kit for children nine and up. Meltz (2000) among others notes concerns that smart toys can bypass cause and effect learning, an issue that deserves serious study. Current Issues Are computers appropriate for young children? Haugland (1999, 2000) provided reviews of when to introduce computers and some benefits of computer use. The Alliance for Children reported on potential harm to chil- dren from computer use, and proposed a moratorium on computers in early childhood education programs and elementary schools (Cordes & Miller, 2000). This was followed by a position statement, “…signed by more than 75 educators child-development and health authorities, technology experts, researchers, and other advocates for children” (Alliance for Children, 2000). It generated a response by Ginsberg (2000), Executive Director of NAEYC. The American Academy of Pediatrics and Learning in the Real World agreed to fund research in 2001 that investigates, “…the possible con- nection between early and frequent computer use and children’s gross and vi- sual motor development” (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2000). Issues re- garding the use of computers by young children deserve further research. While to some degree these questions have been raised since before the birth of the early Texas Instruments computer (with an audio cassette tape drive, no less), vigorous and hopefully enlightened discussions should continue. How young is too young? Many believe three is the appropriate age to be- gin introducing computers to children, and others suggest two is more ap- propriate. There is clearly a strong parent market for “lapware,” software for very young children. According to PC Data, “sales of lapware grew by 284 Kalinowski 20% between July 1999 and July 2000” (Branscum, 2001, p. 49). Is there an age at which children are too young to reasonably benefit? Could there be a JumpStart Newborn and even JumpStart Embryo in our future? The NAEYC Young Children and Technology forum began an interesting thread on this topic at the end of 2000. It is anticipated within two to three years there will be much better data on the advantages and disadvantages of computers with very young children. How should technology be integrated into the curricula? Issues of effec- tive integration methods and evaluation of integration training for early child- hood teachers also warrant further attention. According to Jayne Edwards, We often confuse the issue of how to appropriately integrate the use of technology into curriculum (which she believes varies depending upon the age of the children) with how to effectively use any tool that a teacher may have in their repertoire. The computer should not be an afterthought or a reward, but rather another tool in the overall goal of creating lifelong learners, exciting children about learning and equip- ping them with the ‘tools’ they will need as they grow and learn....just as we teach them the alphabet and the use of books, the computer will in itself and as a part of a whole, provide learning opportunities for children. We don’t eliminate the use of books because teachers don’t use them effectively….(personal communication, 11/27/00). How can adaptive technology assist children with disabilities? While this is perhaps the most exciting area for technological progress in educa- tion, a discussion of the mushrooming use of technology to assist children with disabilities is outside the purview of this article. An interested reader might begin such a search at the Alliance for Technology Access website, or by reading its new third edition of Computers and Web Resources for People with Disabilities, or at the U.S. Office of Special Education Pro- grams (OSEP) website. The Center for Applied Technology, KITE: Kids In- cluded Through Technology Are Enriched, and the Let’s Play Project are also recommended and available via the Technology and Young Children website. Unresolved Needs How can we ensure reasonable access to technology for all children? An issue identified nearly a decade ago (Piller, 1992), unequal access to technology, now termed the digital divide, is “…a widening gap between those with access to computers and the internet and those without” (Trumble, 2000, p. 7). Although Media Matrix reported, “…households with incomes of The Current Status of Technology in Education 285 less than $25,000 are the fastest growing group online,” I believe that many young children will continue to be denied access and find themselves increasingly at a technological disadvantage. How can we develop software that is germane to and appropriate for girls? According to CSR (May/June 2000, p. 4) male characters dominate children’s software at a ratio of three to one, and software targeted to girls is replete with gender stereotypes. MentorGirls is one organization that pro- motes appropriate software for girls, but this is a need that will take sus- tained advocacy to substantially improve.