EARLY CHILDHOOD LEARNING & THE

MEDIA ENVIRONMENT

PRIYA S. NAYARMEDIA EDUCATION

LAB

What about children and their interaction with the

media environment? Where do we begin? How

do we begin looking at media influences?

Can we even make sense of media education for

early childhood?

“Far from being mere unfinished adults, babies and young

children are exquisitely designed by evolution to change and create, to learn and explore.”

Alison GopnikHow Babies Think?!

Video LinksGood Babies and Talking Babies

Allison Gopnik

http://youtu.be/TVRnbkHyXYk

Twins “Talking” to Each Other:

http://youtu.be/_JmA2ClUvUY

TED Talk on “The Birth of a Word”http://www.ted.com/talks/deb_roy_the_birth_of_a_word.html

In New York schools: Stephen Wise,

Waldorf and Trevor Day Schools – what

are the different perspectives of

Media Use in Early Childhood Care?

At the Stephen Wise ECC, the focus is on

documenting... “Children are not distracted by the

physical environment, instead the environment is utilized for learning… We document everything and the kids are used to being

photographed!” Teacher at Stephen Wise ECC as she

takes pictures

Stephen Wise ECC, New York City

http://ecc.swfs.org/

Waldorf Schools function as a “Media Free” environment. A Waldorf School writes, “The

school’s efforts to foster students’ healthy emotional development

and meaningful relationships with their environment are undermined

by those encounters with media that separate children from

authentic experience and promote a distorted, developmentally

inappropriate and consumerist view of the world.” Media Policy

Waldorf Schools, Media Policies

http://www.waldorfgarden.org/index.aspx

http://www.waldorfgarden.org/curriculum/preschool.aspx

Trevor Day School Administrator tells me that they consciously monitor use of media,

utilizing media tools for learning from the

beginning… “Our Nursery media use that I can think of are CD’s and DVD’s…for

language learning and other educational videos”

Trevor Day School, NYC

Technology at Trevor Day School: http://www.trevor.org/podium/default.aspx?t=117933

Developmental Ability In an interview with a

Teacher’s Union representative, she

exclaims that “…children do not need to be exposed to media. What they need is a

relationship with their teacher!”

In Simple Language

• Media Education for early childhood is not instructional, it must be interactive and allow children the “listening space”

• Experiential learning can (and should) include media tools - media education does not replace a teacher-student relationship!

• Teachers need to be educated on what media education is about, how it can be incorporated in an early childhood setting, what are the benefits of providing these tools… these questions need statistically backed up answers

In my research, my readings and discussions

it is clear that early childhood teaching /

learning is about developmental theories. Children are expected to learn socializing, they are expected to understand

commands and wait their turn…

The idea that children who are not

introduced to media at an early age are

“missing” a key element in their

educational tool box is still pretty alien to

most teachers I spoke with.