Developmentally Appropriate Technology Use and Early Childhood Teacher Education

Abstract

Early childhood teacher education methods classes often emphasize the application of developmentally appropriate practices (DAP). In today's digital age, it is important for teacher educators and their students to think about how to extend DAP to technology use. In this article, two contrasting classroom scenarios are provided to illustrate developmentally appropriate technology use (DATU), a new educational term coined by the authors. Briefly, DATU is defined as use that both respects the unique challenges presented by children's levels of development and capitalizes on children's natural desire to actively, collaboratively construct knowledge and solve problems. A five-element framework for guiding teachers toward DATU is explained.