The greatest argument for incorporating technology into our early years settings is that it reflects the immediate and present world around us.
Consider a trip to a supermarket. There, a three-year-old might notice the automatic doors open as they approach, see themselves in the CCTV cameras, observe security staff using their pagers and hear the shop-floor messages to staff and customers. They might be shown how to use digital scales, and at the check-out they will encounter barcode scanners, bells and lights to request help, card readers... the list goes on.
At home, children as young as one often know how to turn the television on and off using the remote control. Young children register the importance to adults of objects such as key fobs that magically open car doors, and mobile phones. One three-year-old I know regularly asks me to phone her mother to find out when she's picking her up and tells me, 'If she doesn't answer, just keep trying, she might be driving'.
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