TCDS305 ICT In Early Childhood Education - Presentation Assignment Solution

ICT in Early Childhood has More Disadvantages than Advantages

The more young children are exposed to information and communication technologies (ICT) today, the more the concern among parents and scholars about the impacts of ICT use. Although ICT-based early childhood programs have some benefits, the disadvantages far outweigh its advantages.

ICT has a negative role to play in early childhood settings. While the benefits are mostly observed in terms of learning outcomes at home or in schools, the disadvantages encompass more than one aspect – there are negative impacts on the children’s physical, social and cognitive skills; it also challenges teachers while they upskill themselves; and ICT-based early childhood pedagogies even hurt the institutions financially when it is included or implemented. Here are some of the disadvantages to ICT-rich early childhood programs:

Increases the Operational Cost Burden

Technology-integrated infrastructure means additional investment by the institutions on supplying ICT resources to teachers and students – computers, projectors, internet, interactive whiteboards, etc. The traditional text-book based pedagogies had lesser cost burdens for schools. ICT involves both direct and indirect costs like the cost of inventory, then maintenance costs and user training costs, observed Meehan (2006). The worst part is the return on investment is not guaranteed as the success of ICT-based learning is dependent largely on the educators’ readiness. Cox and Webb (2004) clearly discussed that ICT in itself does not improve learning outcomes, but needs to be used effectively by the teachers. So the return of this huge technological investment depends largely on the teachers’ beliefs, their knowledge on the subject, their willingness to explore the potentials and choose ICT tools appropriately (Cox & Webb 2004).

Dependency on Teachers

The role of ICT is largely dependent on the educators who use it in classroom settings or even on parents at home. They are often sceptical and unwilling to initiate technology-based teaching. This can be explained by the Cognitive Dissonance Theory of psychologist Leon Festinger. Festinger (1957) said that people tend to ensure that their existing beliefs are consistent and are not threatened by any conflicting belief. Whenever a conflicting thought arises, they try to avoid it. Same happens with the shift from textbook-based teaching to ICT-based teaching, thus hampering the educators’ readiness to ICT and its training. For example, many researchers, such as Munro (2002), Cox and Abbott (2004) and Wentling, et. al. (2006), found that regular technology use reported by educators amounted to only a few minutes of ICT exposure to students or sometimes more. These variations will naturally bring about differing learning outcomes of ICT on students’ learning.