The purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to investigate early childhood teachers' perceptions of how technology integration contributes to the development of young children's literacy. I sought to understand their perspectives on the differences between traditional and digital literacies, the benefits of using technology for this…

Researchers have indicated that educators integrate technology based on their perspectives. Despite the increased expectation for educators to integrate technology into the daily academic environment, there has not been a significant improvement in outcomes in the critical area of literacy. In this basic qualitative study, the research questions…

Approximately 250 million children across the world are not acquiring basic reading and math skills, even though about 50% of them have spent at least 4 years in school. Educational policies on Early grade literacy (EGL) in the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region have long suffered from a disjuncture between school practice and research.…

Although there are documented benefits and legislative mandates for children from birth through age 22, assistive technology (AT) is highly underused, especially among young children (Dunst & Trivette, 2011). One of the main reasons for this underuse is that while teachers are legally required to provide AT for children with disabilities, many…

Children growing up in Western English-speaking countries are shaped by the presence of digital and interactive multimedia, often presented via technologies such as tablets and smartphones (i.e., touchscreens). Digital technologies are pervasive in homes, schools, and communities, yet beliefs about and recommendations for how they are used in…

As a part of the teacher licensure program at the graduate level at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC), the M.Ed. licensure candidate is required to complete an action research project during a 3-semester-hour course that coincides with the 9-semester-hour student teaching experience or with school employment. This course, Education…

In this study we examine the effectiveness of a technology-based vocabulary intervention compared to an extended vocabulary intervention that has been validated in previous studies. At-risk first grade students learned new words through each condition in a within-subjects design. Comparisons of target word knowledge between the two conditions were…

Success in reading is often a predictor of broader school success, and children who finish elementary school with weak reading skills are at very high risk for dropping out of high school. Increasingly, early literacy programs are incorporating digital applications to enhance literacy teaching and learning. This evaluation of five teachers in…

Technology applications can make important contributions to improving learning outcomes in the domain of early literacy. However, to fully exploit the potential of educational technologies, teachers must have specific knowledge and skills. This study aimed to articulate the technological pedagogical content knowledge teachers need to make…

School closures due to teacher strikes or political unrest in low-resource contexts can adversely affect children's educational outcomes and career opportunities. Phone-based educational technologies could help bridge these gaps in formal schooling, but it is unclear whether or how children and their families will use such systems during periods…

School closures due to teacher strikes or political unrest in low-resource contexts can adversely affect children's educational outcomes and career opportunities. Phone-based educational technologies could help bridge these gaps in formal schooling, but it is unclear whether or how children and their families will use such systems during periods…

The present study focused on the involvement of Dutch kindergarten teachers in curriculum (design and) implementation of PictoPal activities in three different roles: executor-only, re-designer, and co-designer. PictoPal refers to ICT-rich on- and off-computer activities for early literacy. In the executor-only role, teachers were not involved in…

Research on this intervention program aimed to address whether digital technology (i.e., apps on tablets) contributes to struggling early readers' (4-6 years old) on-task behavior and level of engagement while learning prerequisite emergent literacy skills (e.g., phonemic awareness, phonics, word recognition and decoding). The research also…

This study investigated pre-service teachers' perception of and technology competency in creating and using e-picture books in their future classrooms. Participants were 114 pre-service teachers in a required Early Childhood Education undergraduate course at a mid-western university in the United States. As part of the course assignments,…

Early fine motor writing skills are quickly becoming recognized as an important school readiness skill associated with later academic success (Dinehart and Manfra, 2013; Grissmer et al., 2010; Son and Meisels, 2006). Yet, little is known about the development of handwriting, the extent to which it is of value in the early childhood classroom and…