The NAEYC Technology and Young Children Interest Forum has put together many resources for early childhood educators looking for guidance on what, when and how to use the broad range of digital and analog devices we have or are considering using in our programs. These resources supplement the joint position statement by NAEYC and Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media. 

As a resource teacher without a home base, I’m interested in technology because I see it being used everywhere outside the classrooms and wonder which, if any, tools I could use to support my science teaching. I already use and see the value in digital microscope viewing of objects and living organisms. Using a digital microscope and laptop I was able to take photos and video ants as they drank from a drop of honey I put on the dish to keep them occupied while we looked at them. In the video you can see their abdomens pulsating and getting larger as they ate, something I couldn’t see with just my eyes. Somehow, those tiny animals look more alive when seen up close. However, due to the expense, I’m still not letting the children handle the microscope by themselves. They can tell me where to move the microscope, but it is not the same experience. I wonder what they would look at if they were able to control it all. I want a bounce-proof digital microscope that can be used with laptops and tablets.
Members of NAEYC can read the On Our Minds column by Lynn Hartle and Ilene R. Berson in the November 2012 issue of Young Children and visit the Technology and Young Children interest forum page.  The column is also available online at: http://www.naeyc.org/yc/files/yc/file/201211/OnOurMinds1112.pdf
The additional resources include:
The Technology and Young Children website, http://www.techandyoungchildren.org/index.html
The Diigo ECETECH group knowledge-sharing, collaborative tool, http://groups.diigo.com/group/ecetech
The ECETECH group’s wiki, including a page on “What are wikis?” http://ecetech.wikispaces.com/
The ECETECH group’s Facebook page, sharing questions, conference news, and research https://www.facebook.com/ECETECH
 
Share your resources and experience, or link to something you’ve already shared, in a comment below.