Educators have a huge impact as to how the learning environment is displayed and effectively managed. As previously mentioned before the changes in the learning environment associated with digital technology did have some negative outcomes as well. The cost efficiency was one of the main points in which digital technology may impact the school’s environment, not so much the students. There is a huge perception as to what digital technology can do to a child, some stereotypes are that it makes a child anti-social, always at home, and depressed. There are changes to be made in order to create this technology as affective and positive as possible. Some changes include having an open mind and believing that these devices are being used for the right reasons. A way in which we can make the learning environment better would be for the teachers’ roles to be stepped up. Both roles in a teacher and student should be increased in order to create this new impact on the learning environment better. A way in which teachers should act in creating a better learning environment for their students would be to “not control the learning process as well as they should allow students to perform collaborative work and make some decisions on their own.” (Wikramanayake, 2014, p.7) This allows the children to be trusted and allows them to learn on their own. Allowing a child to learn from minor mistakes will create a better understanding that they can and will be able to learn independently in their future successes.  Students should focus on “creating personal knowledge by acting on content provided by teachers, media resources, and personal experiences” (Wikramanayake, 2014, p.8) This focus will allow the child to obtain better directive skills such as problem solving and critically thinking on their own. The negative impact of the beneficial costs of the funding of these devices should be brought up to the government. Education grants were given to teachers and school systems in order to create an effective learning experience. A document of the educational grant funding for schools around Canada showed that in 2004-2005 a lot of the computers for schools were donated. “Free computer hardware for non-profit schools. You will be surprised at the equipment that some companies donate” (Briere, 2004,p.2) The overall changes that can be made In order to create an even better learning environment for students is inspiring, these little steps early childhood educators, students, peers, and higher authorities do will help create this environment captivating.

Digital technology has changed the learning environment in a childcare in many ways. The new technologies being incorporated in the curriculum can create biases amongst educators, students, parents and peers. There can be positive and negative outcomes as to what these changes have done to the learning environments in the childcare setting. Studies have shown that there is a higher rate of positive outcomes than negative. The one negative outcome as to what these changes have done to the learning environment was found on Matthew Lynch’s article. Lynch goes into detail on some of the negative aspects of the changes digital technology has made in the education system. The costs of these devices would be one of the downgrading factors, “The cost of the tablets themselves, along with maintenance costs, higher bandwidth and security features, and more manpower in school IT departments, are certainly obstacles.” (Lynchs, 2016) This was one of the only resources I found that genuinely had an effective negative outcome on digital technology. The financial strain that the technology can come with can create a barrier for those who are unable to afford such an expensive budget. Digital technology has many positive effects within the learning environment of a child. Personally, I believe that the positives highly outweigh the one negative outcome listed above. Digital technology is and can be used to help those children with disabilities, this type of technology “can be used to effectively support students as they manage their daily activities and independently complete tasks in classroom and mainstream environments.” (Ferdig, Pytash, Kosko, Gandolfi & Mathews, 2016,p.8) The researchers in this article concluded that the social, cognitive, and literature skills of a child suffering with an kind of disability was positively affected with a type of digital technology, and the 70 percent of those who were hardly ever introduced to these types of technology were lacking in some sort of skill. Another positive change digital technology has done for our learning environment would be the technology being used as a social tool. Caryln Bracken conducted a study consisting of her observing her preschool students interacting and using technology in the classroom. Bracken had found that integrating the classroom with digital technology was “open ended and encourages children to interact with one other, and also allows children to learn in a way that makes the most sense to them” ( Bracken, 2015, p.12) The changes made in the learning environment have created countless positive outcomes for the children involved, and a few negative conclusions as well.

​(Speech & Language Therapy, 2017) [Image]

The changes made in the childcare learning environment has been exponentially fascinating. Technology and the changes that come with it have become something that is quite hard to catch up to. The changes made in the classroom has been demonstrated through personal experiences as well as through observations. Comparing and contrasting the past and present is very important within this category of the blog. Being a young adult, many can account to the situations and ways in which our own classrooms and learning environments were like. The evolution of technology has been mesmerizing to watch, we are now used to having technology or information at a touch of a button. Back in the day technology was indescribable and has come a long way. Devices were not wireless, our chalk boards were touch screen, and our kindergarten songs were not learned through YouTube videos. In the early 2000s, “digital computers ranging from laptops to Internet networks came in many sizes and performed various tasks” ( Schafer, 2003, pg.25)  Classrooms had no technology involved in the learning curriculum. Teachers had no problems with having to tell their students to put phones away at such a young age, and children had hardly any access to Chromebook, iPad, tablets, phones, etc. in the classrooms. Now teachers are evolving and allowing their students to have screen times and they are often using their technological devices to asses and use for their homework or learning experience. Teachers are learning new ways in incorporating these technological devices into their curriculum, whether that be for literature, mathematics, science, or any other subject in the classroom. New ways of using this technology has become beneficial for both the students and teachers in learning how to incorporate these devices effectively and learning how to not misuse them is the most important concept. I truly believe that comparing the changes being made amongst how the classrooms were set up with and without technology, the technology involved outweighs them being absent.

The chosen topic of education and how digital technology is changing the environment in childcare is a very important topic of discussion. Education has become one of the most important ways of learning and developing knowledge. I believe this topic is important because it is what shapes a child’s development in various ways, education allows children to learn, discover and develop skills that will further help us in our later years in life. Education has become a big part of our lives, we enter schools in our very early years in life and most continue up until their later adult lives. Digital technology has become something that has been continuing to develop evolve, it also has become somewhat of a norm in our early years and later years in life. I believe the changes being made in our childcare system are exceptionally important in determining whether or not this change is positive or negative.