Evaluation and Integration of Digital Media in the Early Childhood Classroom

As the open education movement has been blooming for more than a decade in PK-12 education, digital media for teaching and learning manifested in OERs (Open Educational Resources) have increased exponentially in quantity, variety, and more pedagogically sound designs along with emerging cutting-edge technology. Teachers in early childhood education integrate digital media on a daily basis for their classroom instruction and assigned student learning activities at home or in other digital environments. While celebrating the boundless immensity and easy accessibility of digital media, teachers are increasingly facing constant challenges in identifying high quality OERs for lesson planning and instruction. There is an imperative need to integrate digital media in the classroom following the developmentally appropriate principles for the vast majority of teachers in early childhood settings. Evaluation & Integration of Digital Media in the Early Childhood Classroom introduces the strategies and techniques in logical steps of OERs' searching, curation, evaluation, and integration. At the instructional level, the book presents an evaluation-based ETACS model to demonstrate how to use digital media to engage learners, teach content, assess learning, create digital projects, and share learning results. Evaluation & Integration also covers popular topics and related online tools in digital learning environment management, digital curriculum management, STEM education, computational thinking, and coding instruction for young children.