Chapter 3: Application of ICT in Preschool
At the end of this unit, the student teachers will be able to:
Know when and how to use ICT with children
Select appropriate hardware and software for preschool education.
Identify the basics of internet
Discus services of internet and explain various terminology used in
Internet
Search and use resources on the internet
Planning and Managing ICT tools for preschool education
• ICT can be used in role-play and integrated across the curriculum
• The child should be in control of the equipment, not the other way
round.
• Successful ICT in the early years depends on staff interacting with
the children, observing and planning for children to interact and
share knowledge and skills with each other.
• All the staff needs to feel confident and capable of using ICT.
• ICT equipment needs to be available for all children not just used by
the confident few.
• Avoid computer programmes that are just interactive
worksheets, look for open ended, discovery or challenge
type programmes.
• Use ICT to communicate with parents, staff, children,
visitors etc.
• Be creative and imaginative.
Manage and Integrate Technology into your Classroom
Two types of ICT use are distinguished in early childhood
education:-
„ICT use supporting basic ICT skills and attitudes‟, and
„ICT use supporting contents and individual learning needs‟.
There are many ways you integrate technology into the classroom in
preschool: -
Morning Check in Using an Interactive whiteboard
Recording student Reading
Sharing examples of student work
Taking a movie of your students
Displaying student writing
Digital Newsletters
Student Slideshows
Reading Groups
Digital Books
Listening to books
Appropriate use of ICT tools in specific context
Developmentally appropriate technology in early childhood offers eight
general principles for determining the appropriateness of ICT applications to
be used in the early years:
Allow child to be in control;
Avoid applications that contain violence or stereotyping;
Be Aware of health and safety issues;
Choose applications that are transparent and intuitive;
Ensure an educational purpose;
Encourage collaboration;
Encourage educational involvement of parents; and
Integrate with other aspects of the curriculum.
Appropriate technology tools provide a supportive environment that
integrates the technology within curriculum to enhance learning for
all children.
Appropriate technology tools encourage learning activities that are
self-paced and driven by the child‟s own interests and abilities.
Appropriate technology tools provide a learning environment that
helps children actively construct their own knowledge through open-
ended, discovery-based activities.
Appropriate technology tools introduce a variety of opportunities to
support and extend cognitive and social development.
Appropriate technology tools recognize each child as an
individual.
Appropriate technology tools support teacher communication,
creativity and productivity.
Introduction to Internet
a global system that makes possible for computers worldwide to
share information via a variety of languages called protocols.
the largest computer network in the world, connecting millions of
computers.
A network is a group of two or more computer systems linked
together.
• Internet is a collection of internetworked computer around the world
used for communication and sharing of global resources among
different individuals, institutions and organizations.
How does the Internet work?
In order to make the Internet work, it requires:
a physical connection between the computers
a common language (called TCP/IP - Transmission Control
Protocol/Internet Protocol) for the computers to communicate
over the Internet. By using TCP/IP Protocol, all kinds of
computers with different operating systems run on the Interne
Connectivity:
Dialling into an Internet service provider's (ISP) computer
Direct connection to an Internet service provider.
To establish a conventional dial-up connection to
the Internet, you will need the following:
An account with an ISP (a company that provides the
Internet access)
A telephone connection
Modem (external/internal)
Communication software
Protocol
Since most computers were not similar, they had to share the same
language to understand each other. This is what gave birth to the
various protocols.
Protocols are the formal rules governing the exchange of information
between computers so as to provide reliable and efficient transfer of
information.
Detailed protocols are required to precisely define the format in which
data and system messages are to be sent.
Protocol describes how a message is addressed and governs network
traffic flow by controlling priority, routing and sequence of messages.
Services of Internet
What does one do with the Internet?
E-Mail (Electronic Mail)
FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
Telnet (Remote Computing)
www (world wide web)
video conferencing
E-mail
E-mail or Electronic mail is a paperless method of sending messages, notes
or letters from one person to another or even many people at the same time
via Internet.
Features of E-mail:
One-to-one or one-to-many communications
Instant communications
Physical presence of recipient is not required
Most inexpensive mail services, 24-hours a day and seven days a week
Encourages informal communications
Components of an E-mail Address
Example:
john@[Link]
In the example above, “john” is the local part, which is the
name of a mailbox on the destination computer, where finally
the mail will be delivered.
Hotmail is the mail server where the mailbox “john” exist,
.com is the type of organization on net, which is hosting the
mail server.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
File Transfer Protocol, is an Internet utility software used to upload and
download files.
It gives access to directories or folders on remote computers and allows
software, data and text files to be transferred between different kinds of
computers. The basic objectives of FTP are:
give flexibility and promote sharing of computer programs, files and data
To transfer data reliably and more efficiently over network
To encourage implicit or indirect use of remote computers using Internet
To shield a user from variations in file storage systems among hosts.
Telnet (Remote Computing)
Telnet or remote computing is telecommunication utility software, which uses
available telecommunication
facility and allows you to become a user on a remote computer
uses available telecommunication facility and allows you to become a user on a
remote computer.
The TELNET works in a very step by step procedure
The commands typed on the client computer are sent to the local Internet Service
Provider (ISP), and then from the ISP to the remote computer that you have gained
access.
Most of the ISP provides facility to TELENET into your own account from another
city and check your e-mail while you are travelling or away on business.
Video Conferencing
a method of communicating by two-way video and audio
transmission with help of telecommunication technologies
A videoconference is a live connection between people in
separate locations for the purpose of communication, usually
involving audio and often text as well as video.
WWW (World Wide Web)
acronym for the World Wide Web (It is also commonly known as The Web) is a part of
the Internet. WWW is also known as W3
hypertext based information retrieval tool
These documents can be in many formats, such as text, graphics, animation, sound and
latest is video.
All the information on Internet are presented to the user as a document or more
popularly known as Web Page. All these Web Pages are link to each other or even to
section within a Web Page
And these links are known as Hyper Links.
The tool used to view these Web Pages on Internet is known as Internet browser or
simply browser.
World Wide Web is a vast collection of hypertext documents stored on internet
computer.
Basic Internet Terms
Search Engines: find information for us by matching specific words to
information on the Internet
Browsers : software application used to locate and display web pages. The
three most popular browsers are Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, and
Google Chrome.
Web Server: a program and a computer clubbed in to oneentity which
responds to the requests from web browsers for Internet resources.
Homepage: the first hypertext document to be shown when a user follows a
link to the web server.
URLs: Every document on the web has an address which is called the URL
(Uniform Resource Locator)
Each URL has several parts: the protocol, the host name and domain
name.
For example: [Link] URL to locate hawassa college of teacher
education is
[Link]
Protocol Host Domain
(Service) path component
For example: 2. The URL to locate GOOGLE is
[Link]
http:// and https:// hypertext transfer protocol identifies the
document as a web page
www: -document on the World Wide Web.
.google:-host name
.com:-domain name that identifies category of the page. That com
means commercial centre.
Searching on the web
• Search services on the Internet come in two main flavors:-
1) „Search engine‟ that index words or terms in Internet documents;
and
2) „Directories‟ that classify Web documents or locations into an
arbitrary subject classification scheme or taxonomy.
• Google- [Link]
• YouTube- [Link]
• Alta Vista – [Link]
• Lycos – [Link]
• Yahoo! – [Link]
QUESTIONS
State whether the following statements are True or False.
(a) WWW is the acronym for the World Wide Web
(b) In TCP/IP connection, the user will get only textual matter of a
Web Page.
(c) E-mail is known as URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
Children and Internet Use
offers our children unlimited opportunities for learning, constructive
entertainment and personal growth
Internet risks can be effectively managed through education and careful
parental attention
Spend time online with your child
Help your child to locate appropriate Internet Web sites
Pay attention to any games she might download or copy from the Internet
You might consider using "filters" to block your child from accessing sites
that may be inappropriate.
Monitor the amount of time that your child spends online.
Chapter Three Review Exercise
Answer the following questions briefly.
1. Write how to use ICT with Children‟s?
2. What are the appropriate hardware and software for preschool
education?
3. Define the term internet?
4. Describe how internet works?
5. List and explain services of the internet?