In the early stages of development for reading, math, and writing, we teach students that print is a way of communicating. We teach students that a number represents something, a group, or picture. In writing, we begin by teaching children how to properly hold a pencil. We also teach them that print moves from left to right and top to bottom. Why? It's because we are laying the first brick, not of a home, but of a large skyscraper.
For technology, at the early-childhood level, it is absolutely necessary to scaffold instruction when it comes to technology. I know that at my school, many children have never even seen or touched a computer before their very first day in pre-kindergarten or kindergarten.
Teaching students terminology, how to hold a mouse and what a keyboard is is extremely important. They need to understand that a monitor is not a TV like one of my students asked one day. Based on our demographics and how the number of disadvantaged children is increasing, we need to lay a very solid foundation for each and every following grade level.
Starting with baby steps and building on each layer of bricks will make learning and teaching not only enjoyable, but successful for both teacher and students.
A student must be able to know what a program looks like, what an icon is, what "double-click" and "right-click" means in second grade. They must be able to first explore as a three or four-year old what all the parts are to a computer first and the proper holding and care of such hardware.
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