Janet Cooke and John Woollard

In this chapter we show that the effective use of information and com- munications technology (ICT) to enable creativity is dependent upon careful consideration of the human computer interface. Designed well, children can remember activities associated with icons and become pro- ficient in the use of software. Less well designed icons can impede ICT based creativity and the development of ICT capability. It is also important that the ICT activities are embedded in physical experiences to ensure that the relationships between icons, functions and ‘real’ activities are appreciated. The underpinning research shows that there is a value in the creativity enabled by computers as well as the value in developing children’s computing skills and understanding. It shows that children also begin to understand the use of icons to represent concepts in a similar way that symbols and signs represent mathematical and logic concepts in other subjects such as geography, mathematics and science. The findings also underpin the necessity and facility for teachers to evaluate software before its use in the classroom.

When a child paints, when a child draws and when a child pastes they participate in Piagetian concrete activity. The activities are concrete because they are the combination of mental processing and physical activities. On the computer the situation is similar. The extent to which ICT

ICT IN THE EARLY YEARS

based painting, drawing and pasting are concrete activities is reflected in the way in which young children can learn and apply their learning with relatively little reinforcement. Our research work suggests that the icons associated with the computer activities of painting, drawing and pasting are remembered more easily than the verbal oral instructions and perhaps as easily as the practical objects themselves. The work, therefore, shows the importance of computer-based painting both in the expressive and artistic development of the child and their computer awareness and computer skills education. An important principle when we use computers with young children is that we are not simply letting them paint or draw on the computer, but we are giving them experience of computing for its own sake. That experience develops their knowledge and understanding of computing processes thus securing their future ICT capability. As we will see, that capability is dependent upon and facilitated by the use of icons to represent both virtual and physical activities.

By using a range of stimulating materials on the screen and, by giving the children opportunities to move and organise those images, we are helping to develop their visual literacy. These activities are enjoyable and educa- tive. They remain in the concrete domain yet use tools that can equally be used to support cognitive developments. The computer can also be used to present the child with a range of images and visual devices to support pre- reading and literacy development. The means by which teachers can assess the skills, knowledge and understanding within the expressive and computer domain, are discussed along with how those skills and assessments relate to other areas of the curriculum or other aspects of education of the young child.

This chapter is in three parts. The first part describes the theoretical underpinning of learning, the association between icons and concepts and attempts to define the essential characteristics of a computer-based adventure game or simulation, and discuss the ways in which teachers might usefully vary the activities to provide progression and a range of different challenges. The second part reviews some key ideas in what we currently understand from developmental psychology (and exciting work in early brain development) about young children’s learning. Throughout both parts, implications are drawn for the ways in which computer technology, and adventure games and simulations in particular, can be used to most effectively support children’s learning. The third part reports upon classroom research observing young children using painting programs.

Janet Cooke and John Woollard