Chapter 7: Mathematics and Technology: Supporting Learning for Students and Teachers¹

Computer technology has the potential to make multiple contributions to early childhood education, particularly in core areas such as language, literacy, and mathematics (Clements & Sarama, 2003b; Sarama & Clements, 2002; Seng, 1999). Whether this potential is realized depends on which technology is used and how the technology is used. We begin this chapter by considering recent criticisms of computers in childhood. Next, we review research and offer suggestions drawn from that literature on using technology to support the learning first of young children and second, their teachers.

More than a decade ago, we argued that “we no longer need to ask whether the use of technology is ‘appropriate’” in early childhood education (Clements & Swaminathan, 1995). The research supporting that statement was, and remains, convincing. However, social and political movements often cycle back to issues that research has closed. For example, some publications say that computers have no place in the early childhood classroom because they pose serious hazards—physical, emotional, intellectual, and developmental—to children (Cordes & Miller, 2000). The authors do not discriminate between violent video games and educational software in their broad attack on technology. They quote one negative finding from a study on creativity, but fail to report the many positive affects of using computers on other areas of development from the same study and ignore the many studies showing positive affects of computers on children’s creativity. (For a full report on such misinterpretations, and a review of the research, see Clements & Sarama, 2003a.) Such conclusions ignore or misinterpret most of the research on technology in early education. Young children show comfort and confidence in using software. They can understand, think about, and learn from their computer activity (Clements & Nastasi, 1993; Clements & Sarama, 2003a; Wang & Ching, 2003). Here we emphasize one criticism that is valid: In practice, reality often falls short of realizing the promise of technology (Cuban, 2001; Healy, 1998).