A critique of Douglas Clements and Julie Sarama’s article The Role of Technology in Early Childhood Learning.
This paper shows that the article in question addresses the need and advantages of computer for young children, but provides a bias towards the good side of computers and hardly looks at any of the negative aspects. The writer states that despite the bias, the article is informative and a useful source of information.
Clements and Julie Sarama begin the review with a general discussion of the role of the computer in early childhood education. They note that the use of computers has grown dramatically in the last several years, and that a large body of evidence suggests that such use in the early childhood classroom is both appropriate and effective. The authors make a quick note that many researchers still disagree with this assessment, and promise to investigate the studies that indicate a negative impact of computers in the classroom. However, the authors fail to fulfill this early promise in any significant way, as the body of the review does not contain any significant analysis of the negative effects of computers in the classroom. The bias toward the positive aspects of computers in the classroom as disturbing as it is blatant.