The Future of Early Childhood Computing*

IBM and Head Start

Beginning in May 1988, IBM lent two computers each to a number of Head Start classroom sites, along with educational software. Baltimore, Maryland, was the first of the pilot sites; later the Head Start Innovative Project grants were implemented in Head Start classrooms in Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Mexico, New York, and Ohio.

Tsantis, Wright, and Thouvenelle report seeing results from the project in three areas: "equity, empowerment, and enrichment."

Equity, always a concern of Head Start, takes on new meaning in this technological era. Many children begin school already having been exposed to computers, but these are usually children from relatively high income families. Making computers available to the children served by Head Start helps them enter school with technological skills on a par with other children.

Empowerment, the authors say, manifests itself in improvements in the children's self-confidence and self-esteem as they master the use of technology. And having two computers at each site, side-by-side, encourages cooperative problem-solving.

Enrichment comes when well-designed software programs "support open-ended, discovery-oriented learning." Interaction among the children (and adults) provides opportunities for building communications skills as well as problem-solving skills. And many early childhood software programs are vehicles for creative expression, rather than test-like programs with "right" answers and the attendant fear of failure.

The authors conclude that for the early childhood computer experience to be a rewarding one, "it is important to select materials that are well suited to each child's skills and interest level." But they also see the need for "new software that reflects the multicultural diversity of Head Start, incorporates languages other than English, provides for interactive decision-making, and reflects such curricular emphasis as knowledge of the environment and increased awareness of cause-and-effect relationships."

In other words, the availability of computer hardware can be enormously beneficial to young children--but not without the availability of the right kinds of software.

Advice to the Software Industry

So what are the right kinds of software? And how do early childhood professionals make their needs known to software developers?

The Software Publishers Association (SPA) Education Committee heard some suggestions from Wright and Thouvenelle, as well as education authorities Jane Davidson and Daniel Shade at a meeting held at Bank Street College. From their presentations were developed some guidelines in a paper titled "Some Conclusions from Research and Practice on the State of the Art of Early Childhood Software."

The main conclusion would seem to be self-evident: that companies shoud "design software as you would any other early childhood activity. In other words, design software to be age-appropriate, give the child control, contain verbal/clear instructions, provide expanding complexity, foster independent explorations, be process oriented, a real-world representation, have high-quality technical features, provide opportunities for trial and error, and make transformations visible."

A tall order? Certainly--and not just for software publishers, but for all creators of early childhood materials. But computer software presents its own special challenges. SPA representatives received advice on technical specifics as well.

Software would be better designed, they were told, if they considered children's physical capabilities for controlling the cursor and standardized commands for common operations such as moving the cursor or moving on to the next screen. Teacher control was also deemed important. Being able to select the level of difficulty of a particular child would help, and so would being able to customize a program by incorporating elements (such as dinosaurs, teddy bears, flowers, etc.) to complement a unit theme.

Suggestions for program content included both software that would "simulate creative, imaginative play in the dramatic play area of the classroom" (pretend stores, cash registers, X-ray machines, and so forth) and software that "would expose children to events and processes they would not normally have access to."

And one of the software development suggestions addressed hardware issues as well: "Software should maximize the computers' potential rather than be the least common denominator." It is often assumed that very young children need (or can get by with older computers, ones with less memory and smaller price tags than the computers school-age students or even adults require. But in fact, some of the very best software for early childhood incorporates such elements as high-quality color graphics and animation, or digitized or synthesized speech. Such software cannot be developed for machines with only 16K of memory. Does this mean that we should be buying for toddlers Macintoshes and Amigas and IBM PCs that cost not hundreds but a thousand or several thousand dollars?

In future issues, we'll take up the topics of preventive maintenance and how to design a computer interest center for the pre-school classroom that will stand up to use by young children. After all, if you decide to make such a substantial financial investment in computer equipment, you're going to want to keep it in good working order so the children can reap the rich harvest of benefits that should result--if software publishers have been paying attention when early childhood professionals speak.