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[quote=Anonymous]I am a preschool teacher in a fantastic school in St. Louis. Our curriculum is a constructive, play-based curriculum. We do not have "themes" or teacher-directed activities. We provide provocations for the students and follow their lead as they discover. I am currently collaborating with two other teachers to write a grant for our school so that each classroom will have two ipads--one for the teachers and one for the students. Instead of vilifying the use of technology in the classroom, I believe that it might be better to take a step back and see how the technology will be used. Talk with the teachers to determine their plan for the use of the iPads. Are they used simply for games, or are they being used to follow up on the wonderings of the children in the classroom? Preschool is a place for exploration. Are the students wondering about weather and tornados? Use the iPad to look at how a tornado is formed...look at video of the wind in a tornado...extend that into classroom experimentation and create tornados in a bottle. Move your body like it is in a tornado. The children can brainstorm ways to be safe in a tornado. They can create their own video about tornados with the video capabilities of the iPad. The video is THEIRS. They decide what goes in the video, they create the content, they create the format. The video can be posted to their classroom blog. Parents watch the blog and see what their children are accomplishing through play. The teacher can use the iPad to document this process and explain the learning that is occurring with the students.

Preschool IS a place for play. And, play is the medium for learning in a good preschool. There is no place for worksheets, flashcards, or rote memorization. Children wonder; children create; children navigate relationships as they play. Technology is not the enemy. Technology is merely a tool to be used by good teachers as part of the learning experiences that children have. I encourage parents to ask questions, gather information, and engage in an ongoing dialogue with their child's teachers. Children learn everywhere. Our job as parents and educators is to make sure that they have access to many opportunities to learn and encouragement to investigate their world in as many ways as they can. [/quote]

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