Entry Three

Technology can impact both positively and negatively on young children’s lives. The positive effect of technology on children’s lives is that it helps them find more information about people, places, things and events (Fleer & Jane, (2011).  Young children develop new knowledge from investigating through technology and they will be more likely to open their minds about reasoning and other possibilities. This gives children opportunities to use their imagination to develop questions and expand their knowledge (Arthur, Beecher, Dockett, Farmer & Death, (2008).

However, technology can also have a negative effect on children’s lives. Children who come from dysfunctional families that struggle financially and emotionally could result in the child coming into the centre and having behaviour issues. “The children of permissive parents are often found to be aggressive in their relationships with parents, adults and other children”. (Woods & Taylor, 2005). This explained the way children have a lot of difficulties with forming relationships because of the child’s negative influence at home results to the child not knowing how to make positive relationships. This will affect the child’s social competence of not knowing how to interact with people around them.

“Technology for most people means… ‘labour saving’ technology, ‘high consumption’ technology, and they also see the use of such technologies as a measure of social and cultural development” (Fleer & Jane, (2011).

In an early childhood setting, technology is used to help children engage with things that they have not seen or heard before. For example, some children have not been to the zoo, museum or on a plane. Teachers would use the iPad and T.V to show the children some pictures of animals that are in the zoo, or pictures of things in the museum, and videos of aeroplanes flying in the air. These things made children connect to the world that they have not yet experienced but have seen it through technology. It is important to have technology as it provides children valuable learning opportunities. This influence young children to “think logically, strategically, creatively and critically” that they are much likely to continue to engage in ICT later in life (Kirova & Bhargava, 2002). Although technology can also take away children’s “Hands on experience” with people, places, things and events around them. In my centre we make sure that children can only use iPads when they need information to answer questions about what they have discovered in the centre, they would also get to spend only three minutes on iPads then they are sent to create things they have watched or seen on TV. The increasing amount of time children are spending on technologies at home and school has raised questions about how the use of technology may make a difference in their lives--from “helping with homework to causing depression to encouraging violent behaviour” (Subrahmanyam, Kraut, Greenfield & Gross, (2000).