Digital Decisions: Choosing the Right Technology Tools for Early Childhood Education

By Fran Simon, Karen Nemeth and Chip Donohue

“Digital Decisions will open your eyes and expand your awareness of how technology fits into a purposefully planned child-centered classroom.”– Paula Jorde Bloom, Michael W. Louis Endowed Chair, McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership

“Simon and Nemeth transform the debate between technology as good or bad, rather showing us how to use technology actively and interactively within good active and interactive early childhood programs." –Ellen Galinsky, Author, Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs

Feel confident and competent when it comes to choosing and implementing the most appropriate technology tools for your early childhood classroom!

Whether you are a technology enthusiast looking for new ideas and guidance about developmentally appropriate practices, or you are new to the idea of using technology with young children, this book is for you.

Digital Decisions provides everything you need to make your own technology plan based on your experiences and beliefs, the needs of the children, the context of your curriculum and the resources available to you. This no-nonsense, jargon-free guide will help you evaluate the tools and opportunities technology has to offer and integrate them into your early childhood classroom so you can offer real-life, hands-on, interactive activities to children.

A reference every childhood program will want to have, Digital Decisions is brimming with charts, resources, and an array of activities that maximize technology as an interactive learning tool. Each chapter provides supporting guidance to make technology most effective for those working with children who are dual language learners or may have special needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gryphon House, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9780876594339

Fran Simon

Fran Simon is a professional early childhood educator, a passionate technologist, and the chief engagement officer of her own national marketing, educational technology, and publishing consulting company, Engagement Strategies, LLC. After 15 years as a multisite child care administrator and subsequent positions at Teaching Strategies, Inc., and the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, Fran served as vice president of the Technology and Young Children Interest Forum at NAEYC. Fran is a contributing author on technology and social media for Child Care Information Exchange and is a frequent presenter on technology and social media at national conferences. She lives in metropolitan Washington, DC. Karen Nemeth is an education specialist with the New Jersey Department of Education Office of Preschool Education. She earned an MEd in learning, cognition, and development from Rutgers University. For more than 25 years, she has been a teacher, teacher educator, and frequent presenter at national, state, and local education conferences. She is on the executive board of NJ Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages/NJ Bilingual Educators and is co-coordinator of the Early Childhood Special Interest Group.