Turning the Tide on Digital Resources in Early Education: How Early Childhood Programs and State Leaders are becoming more innovative

Turning the Tide on Digital Resources in Early Education: ?

How Early Childhood Programs and State Leaders are becoming more innovative to address challenges ?

By Dr. Nermeen Dashoush - Chief Learning Officer at MarcoPolo Learning and Clinical Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education at Boston University.

Teacher turnover, meeting diverse learning needs, engaging families. There is nothing new about the challenges in the early childhood education field— as they have long existed– but they have been exasperated in the past few years due to the pandemic. High teacher turnover has caused a shortage in the workforce and an influx of novice educators in an attempt to relieve staffing issues. While the turnover rate is higher in the early childhood sector compared to other sectors, the past few years have ushered in record highs. The Early Learning Coalition (ELC) of Polk County, a non-profit organization in Florida responsible for the local oversight of early education State programs, confirmed, “Some of the biggest challenges faced by the early learning community continue to be related to teacher recruitment and retention.” ?

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Early childhood education (or ECE) leaders, including directors, principals, and other decision-makers, tasked with addressing these challenges understand that supporting educators directly impacts the cognitive, social, and emotional development of children and can even impact how much families engage in their child’s learning. While these challenges are complex, ECE leaders increasingly realize that they cannot continue to do the same thing and expect different results. With a wave of federal funding, such as the American Rescue Plan Act’s Child Care Stabilization Grant, opening up the door for opportunities to bolster the field, ECE leaders are taking a closer look at how high-quality digital resources can support teachers in their essential work with children and families. ?

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To tackle these long-standing challenges with innovative solutions, many childcare programs and administrators have partnered with MarcoPolo Learning, an award-winning developer of early childhood education content and digital resources. The ELC of Polk County highlights, “We believe that technology and digital resources are effective tools to support learning and development when used intentionally and appropriately, and within the framework of developmentally appropriate practice.” Below are some ways those tasked with improving the field, such as the ELC of Polk County, utilize innovative digital solutions. ?

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Putting Developmentally Appropriate Tools in the Hands of Teachers?

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Engaging children and responding to their interests is critical to providing children with developmentally appropriate learning experiences. However, responding to children’s interests can be complex and requires more time than teachers have to give. In an internal study at MarcoPolo Learning, 70% of early childhood teachers reported that they used YouTube as a tool to enhance their curriculum by providing visual aids and responding to children’s interests. However, they also reported that not only was it time-consuming to sift through resources that were not aligned with their curriculum, but it also felt as if the content was not created to meet the learning needs of young children. It has become increasingly apparent to early childhood leadership that part of helping teachers engage children and meet their needs means putting high-quality digital resources at their fingertips to allow them to do so at the click of a button as well as replace other unvetted resources. Polk County representatives explain, “While technology should never replace hands-on learning, it can be a critical part of the inquiry process as children explore and want to learn more.”?

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MarcoPolo For Educator's platform allows teachers to access videos, offline activities, and visual aids in a platform created by educators for educators. These resources are aligned with the educational standards, learning frameworks, and nationally recognized curriculums. Early childhood leaders opting into this solution recognize that educators are turning to technology for support, which means giving them the appropriate practical tools to support them.?

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Embed Professional Development ?

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While providing opportunities for professional development seems to be the obvious solution to support the growth of educators, innovation is now being called upon to address concerns about the time commitment and the ineffectiveness of one-shot training. Educators, already stretched too thin, are looking for flexibility in their professional development offerings. Furthermore, even if an educator finds the time to attend professional development courses, numerous studies continue to show that without continuous reinforcement, sometimes up to 14 hours (Yoon et al., 2007), there is no significant impact on the educator’s professional practice or student achievement. ?

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In response to the growing need to reimagine professional development, MarcoPolo Learning is taking an embedded PD approach. Educators are given the option to attend live or recorded sessions, but the impact starts as they use digital tools that are personalized for their professional growth to reinforce concepts learned in professional development sessions. Digital resources allow educators to see the application of what they learned and curate a unique learning path. Providing PD resources to educators is a means of investing in the profession, as survey results have shown early educators that have access to professional development are more likely to stay in the profession. ?

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Extending Learning and Supporting Families ?

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The vast majority of parents with young children are now millennials (Pew Research, 2018). They are well-connected and use technology daily in almost all aspects of their lives. Early childhood leaders increasingly recognize that meeting families where they are is key to family engagement – and that means meeting them digitally. MarcoPolo Learning has long understood that leveraging technology for family engagement can help to improve communication and collaboration between families and educators as well as enhance the overall educational experience for children from all caregivers in their lives. In explaining why they selected MarcoPolo Learning, the ELC of Polk County shared that they understood technology’s powerful and purposeful ability to engage families. Equipping educators with current tools that will not only allow them to share classroom learning at the click of a button but also allow families to get a peek into school learning and give them tools to engage their children outside the classroom is absolutely essential. Many of today’s parents are providing technology to young children and early childhood programs are beginning to use this opportunity to extend the learning from the classroom to the home.?

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While the early childhood education field faces many complex challenges, we should all appreciate the leaps made in recent years when it comes to innovation, funding, public awareness, and support. Although there may not be one solution to the multifaceted obstacles, we encourage educational leaders, administrators, and educators to continue to foster their curiosity and innovation as, together, we nurture the ECE profession and educational experiences for young children across the country. ??