I am a follower of the Eduflak blog written by Patrick Riccard.  Patrick mainly centers his blogs on K-12 education.  In a recent blog, “Whiteboarding 'Uneven' Learning,” he details the purchase of interactive whiteboards and other technology (iPods, eBooks etc.) for K-12 children.  Patrick writes, “For some, such technology is a godsend, an ability to bring 21st century tools into a 21st century learning environment.  For others, these investments are used as nothing more than glorified chalkboards, reducing the latest bells and whistles to a 21st century reincarnation of Little House on the Prairie learning.”  These remarks are directed to K-12 education, however, they are germane to early childhood as well.

My answer is to have the appropriate research based activities installed on the whiteboard or other technological tools to support instruction in these classrooms.  Busy teachers do not have a large amount of time to create these activities on their own.  Often when teachers use the internet, they may not find activities that are scaffolded and are appropriate to support cognitive skills.  Patrick continues in his blog, “..we can’t make teachers walk the path alone.  We need to support them.  And we need to make clear that technology is the tool, and not the teacher itself.”  At Hatch, we make this our goal everyday--supporting teachers with research-based technological activities that support school readiness.

There is strong evidence in a number of research studies demonstrating the value of reading books to toddlers. A recent study published in the November issue of Developmental Psychology published in the American Psychological Association (APA) caught my eye.

In a study conducted by psychologists, Dr. Gabrielle Simcock at the University of Queensland and Dr. Judy DeLoache of the University of Virginia, it was determined that toddlers (18, 24, and 30-months) can learn to “perform novel actions with novel objects from a brief picture book reading interaction.” (Simcock) The 18-month old toddlers were less able to follow the directions given in the book containing colored-pencil drawings than when they were given directions from the books containing life-like color photographs. In the second study, which was with older toddlers (24 and 30-month), it was found that toddlers “performed relatively poorly when given the black and white images compared to the first group of toddlers who were given color photographs.” To the researchers, this proved that children are more influenced by iconic images.

The parameters of the first study described above are, two groups of children, ages 18, 24, and 30-months, were given one of two picture books. One contained six color photographs and the other contained colored pencil drawings that were reproductions of the photograph. “At the end of the reading, the children were asked to construct a rattle using the items in front of them. The study revealed that many of the children were able to imitate the actions depicted and described in the book.”

I find these two studies very informative. I wondered if the adults conducting the read aloud with the toddlers followed any format or structure such as dialogic reading.