Computers in pre‐school education

Educational issues concerning young children and microcomputers: Lego with logo?

“…But if you are an educator who sees the microcomputer as being analogous to books, crayons and paper, television, and Legos then the relationship is obvious, all are educational "tools". With these two competing viewpoints, an adversarial line seems to have been drawn recently debating whether or not children under seven years of age should be exposed to microcomputer education (Barnes & Hill, 1983;Bass, 1985;Brady & Hill, 1984;Cuffaro, 1984;Papert, 1980;Tan, 1985;Sprigle & Schaefer, 1984;Zajonc, 1984). So far the debate has an either/or flavor (computer as monster or messiah) and most of the literature seems to be predicated on educated opinion, casual observation, and interpretation or application of existing theory.…”

Young children using computers to make discoveries about written language

“…Still others reported on children's use of the computer as a socio-dramatic play tool. Some children enjoyed just pressing the keys without checking differences on the screen while others immediately discovered cause-effect relationships between what they did on the keyboard and changes on the screen (Bowman,1985, Tan, 1985.…”

Microworlds, mother teaching behavior and concept formation in the very young child

“…PRESENT controversy over the microcomputer's monster/messiah characteristics (Shepard, 1985), premature conclusions that preschool children should not work with computers (Barnes and Hill, 1983;Bass, 1985;Brady and Hill, 1984;CufFaro, 1984;Tan, 1985;Sprigle and Schaefer, 1984;Zajonc, 1984), recent re-evaluation of the preschool child's cognitive abilities (Gelman and Baillargeon, 1983;Papert, 1980;Watson, Nida, and Shade;, and questions about how mothers will teach their young children to use a microcomputer led to the research reported in this article. A goal central to our research was to provide additional data in the hope of resolving the controversy as to whether or not preschool children should work with microcomputers.…”

“…Others (Sprigle and Schaefer, 1984;Tan, 1985;Watson et al, 1986) have also concluded that the abstractions inherent in two-dimensional graphic displays would not inhibit learning for young preschool children. Piestrup (1985) noted that microcomputer presentation of material is really no more abstract than picture books (the staple of early childhood education) and far less static.…”