Implications of Research
- Contribute to the conversation and literature on whether technology is appropriate and effective for instructing students on early literacy skills
- One piece of evidence that school districts can use to justify (or discourage) the expense of technology in early literacy classrooms
- When choosing to integrate an ILS into the curriculum, district leaders must decide what elements are important in an early literacy classroom and ensure that any technology that is integrated into the curriculum aligns with the district’s philosophy about how children learn.
- In addition, leaders must decide on the role of the ILS within the curriculum. Is the purpose of the ILS to supplement or supplant the teacher?
- The present study suggests that ILS may be just one tool that teachers can integrate into the curriculum and that a careful combination of technology and teachers is needed in order for students to develop a variety of vital early literacy skills.
- Technology can serve as a more knowledgeable other in an early literacy classroom that uses a balanced, constructivist approach to literacy learning. Combining the behavioral, skills-based, sequential approach of Istation® with the more constructivist approach of most early literacy teachers can have a powerful effect on the literacy learning of emergent readers.