Enabling Environments: Around the Nursery - ICT - Key stages

ICT plays an increasingly significant role in our everyday lives. Young children encounter numerous 'real life' uses of ICT both in and outside the home and many are proficient operators of equipment, such as DVD players and remote-control toys.

In the nursery, children should be offered further opportunities to explore a range of purposes for ICT and to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to operate different equipment. Practitioners should also reflect on how ICT equipment can enhance their own practice in supporting children's learning, particularly in observation and assessment.

RESOURCES
Settings should aim to provide:
- DVD camcorder (appropriate equipment for use by both adults and
children)
- digital cameras (for use by adults and children)
- tape/CD player-recorder, listening centre
- role-play equipment such as 'electronic' till, battery-powered toy
phone, barcode scanner, television, DVD recorder, remote control,
washing machine, microwave, battery-operated door bell
- calculators
- torches
- remote-control toys, wheeled remote-control chassis
- floor robots
- electric keyboards and sound pads
- light box
- interactive white board
- overhead projector
- computer, mouse, keyboard, printer, age-appropriate software.

EXPERIENCES
In this area, children might enjoy:
- pretending to use everyday ICT equipment in the home corner and other
role-play areas
- taking photographs of, for example, their favourite areas in nursery
or their own work (models, small-world environments they have created)
- displaying images on walls (using an overhead projector) and looking
at the effects of placing objects and materials on a light box
- constructing their own remote-control vehicles
- 'driving' remote-control vehicles
- e-mailing messages
- exploring computer programs, for example, paint programs, talking
books
- printing out words and images to help to make signs and labels to be
displayed around nursery
- exploring dark dens with a torch.

LEARNING
The kinds of learning that might take place in this area include:
- imitating adults in role-play, for example, using telephones, washing
machines and cash points
- using speech to organise thinking and offer explanations
- giving and following directions
- solving problems
- exploring 'cause and effect'
- making predictions
- concentrating and persevering
- learning and using technical vocabulary and directional language
- recognising and reading numbers (for example, on a telephone key pad),
counting
- recognising letters (for example, on a keyboard)
- reading meaning from symbols (for example, arrows, on/off symbols
- engaging in imaginative role-play which is based on first-hand
experiences
- taking turns
- finding out information (for example, using DVDs, computer programs).
- trying new equipment and having confidence to try new activities
- understanding the uses and specific functions of particular pieces of
equipment
- knowing how to operate simple equipment and complete a simple program
on the computer
- manipulating apparatus effectively, developing control and
co-ordination, for example, twisting and turning knobs, pressing buttons
and keys
- using apparatus safely
- taking care of equipment
- exploring pattern and colour
- turning readily to ICT to support own learning
- using equipment independently