Researching the future of Technology and Education (required)

As technology continues to grow and develop companies and researchers are all curious about what technologies role should be in the classroom and how does it fit into early childhood. The University of Maryland technology researchers completed a 5 year project to observe how technology should be used in the classroom and watched how teachers and students interacted with the technology. Their goals were to develop new technology that could be used in the education field to help enhance learning. They knew that technology was a growing part of children's lives but wanted to clarify when children should have access to the technologies in the classroom. Part of the goal was to see what the needs of the young children (3-6 years old) were, to create technologies in partner with the students and the teachers, etc. One section of the project dealt with having Kindergarteners tell what they liked or disliked about the music blocks that the students could build with to create a song that they enjoyed. Some students liked the blocks because they could be played with in different ways, while some did not like them because there was not a large variety in the types of music. From this the researchers learned what would work for the students and how to develop new technologies for those younger children.

I thought this information was very interesting and great because they are looking for educational ways to introduce technology to the children showing them that they may still learn through the use of technology and that it is not just for enjoyment as we might see more right now with all the video games and computer games. If they continue research like this then they will be able to develop some really amazing technology for in the classroom.