EC eTeaching Symposium 2007: Extending Early Education with Technology

In the two days prior to the World Forum, Chip Donohue and Selena Fox hosted the EC eTeaching Symposium 2007: Extending Early Education with Technology. The Symposium brought together distance learning leaders from 13 countries, to address the opportunities and challenges in supporting early childhood education with technology. Participants shared promising practices and resources with each other through presentations and virtual tours from the perspective of the learner, the teacher and the organization, based on the New Zealand eLearning Guidelines framework.

A number of common themes have emerged during the eTeaching activities over the years:

• It starts with the children – As with all the work we do, the children are where we begin and guide all of our efforts
  
• It’s not about the technology – Technology is simply another tool, another method, of delivering teacher education and professional development – it is not the only method
  
• No one size fits all – While we can learn effective practices from other projects and programs, we need to determine what works best within our own context and define our own effective practices
  
• Be intentional – Like the best teachers of young children, we need to know both what we want to do with technology and why – and make informed choices with specific goals for teachers and outcomes for children in mind
  
• Link standards to outcomes – We need to be intentional about the connections between distance learning standards and guidelines and what we know to be best practice in early care and education

There are also a few key words that come up again and again as we learn with and from early childhood distance learning leaders:

• Access – This is a barrier all around the world and we need strategies for providing access to computers and high speed connections to the Internet, and we need to be sure online learning options are affordable and responsive to the needs, interests, abilities and learning styles of the early childhood educators we are trying to reach
  
• Equity – We need to build technology tools, delivery systems and solutions for all, not just for some.
  
• Context – Everything we do with technology has to be related to early childhood learners, teachers and content
  
• Relationships – It’s all about connecting people and building community
  
• Relevance – Distance learning students do best when what they are learning is applicable to their work and they can put ideas into practice right away

Lydia Foong from Segi College in Malaysia captured the feelings of the Symposium participants best when she said of online learning, “It’s virtual, but it’s so real and concrete. It’s distance, but so close.”

The world of early childhood care and education is literally at our fingertips when we use technology tools to link us to information, resources and our world wide network of colleagues. Following the World Forum Symposium, participants will continue to exchange ideas and share resources in the eCommunity at www.ecelearn.com.

To view the program profiles, participant roster, New Zealand eLearning Guidelines and other resources for effective practices in eTeaching and eLearning, visit the eCommunity at www.ecelearn.com.