Leap #3:

 

Hayle Derderian and Kelsey Kennedy

 

For our LEAP 3 project we interviewed Cheryl Hoyle, a kindergarten teacher 

at the Sherman Elementary School in Warwick, Rhode Island. We asked Hoyle a 

series of questions about her experiences with digital learning in her classroom, and 

how it was used to teach children at such a young age. We decided that Hoyle would 

be a great fit for this project because she would be able to give us great insight at a 

much younger age group than we have previously looked at before, plus she has 

been a kindergarten teacher for quite some time and has been able to witness the 

evolution of technology in the classroom. 

 

One of the questions we had asked Hoyle was what type of techniques are 

being used now for technology that weren’t before, to which she answered “Some 

techniques that are used now are the smart boards where I mentioned before. The 

kids are able to go up to the board with a marker and write their name to practice 

drawing their letters. We also use it as a means of showing videos such as for this 

Halloween, we showed a video on how a pumpkin grows. This was a informative 

video to teach the students what a growth cycle of a pumpkin is. If it wasn’t for 

technology, we wouldn’t be able to show this video in class, we would have to grow 

a real pumpkin overtime to show the changes or simply just use diagrams. Another 

technique that is used is we have a computer in each room. Students also now have 

a computer lab where they go down there once a week for a computer class. Due to 

the young ages of my class, they aren’t able to use the computers until 2nd grade. It is 

still a remarkable advancement.” With this overwhelming support though she does 

state that there are some downfalls with digital learning in which she says “I see 

that a lot of students also get distracted when using these tools. Their excitement 

almost overbears the lesson I am trying to teach them. I also find glitches in 

technology where on one day out of the week, the smart board will stop working 

and I will have to spend time in the middle of my lesson trying to figure it out. 

Although technology has many advancements to teaching, it is not always reliable,” 

and again when asked about how the technological advances are taking over the 

school systems, “Remember, I’m 54. I am still learning myself all of the different 

types of tools that are out there. To be honest, it is still all brand new to me. Do I 

wish that teachers received more training on teaching tools? Yes I do. I think that if 

we do not have the proper training, how are we supposed to implement these digital 

tools in our classroom?,” and one last time when asked about what she would like to 

know more about these technologies, “I have never been able to get a training on it. 

This is just not something that our district prides on, and it is kind of a shame. I 

think that there are probably millions of different tools and techniques out there 

that would be beneficial to my classroom, but it’s very difficult to find the time to 

learn what they are and how they work.”

 

 

 

 

Throughout our interview only one topic kept on appearing, again, and again, 

and that was the problem with being able to keep up to date with the new 

technology, and making sure she, and her colleagues were well trained in these 

tools. While searching for this topic, we came across a site called the RAND 

Corporation, and inside that corporation they had done a project called “T” is for 

Technology, this project was based all around the bridging the digital divide. In this 

project we were able to find a scholarly article that talked about having early 

childhood educators educated in the new technology to teach to their own students, 

and how to successfully go about this. Not only do they outline possible barriers 

teachers, and others may have while going about the switch into the technological 

age, but they also outline ways to make this a successful switch as well. One of the 

many ideas they have about this topic is to “provide guidance and training on 

effective, appropriate use,” so while also having the initial training on a certain 

device, or program, there will also be ongoing training, as well as giving certain 

individuals more training, to make sure they are at an appropriate level to be 

teaching their students. If enacted this solution to the barrier of digital learning, 

directly ties into Hoyle’s own fears, and discrepancies with moving forward in the 

digital age. Another solution to this problem that they had outlined was to “create 

learning communities,” so once the initial training is complete, the teachers will still 

have a chance to continue learning, make changes, and bounce ideas off one another 

on what works best with students, and what does not.

 

One last solution that we 

found could be incredibly helpful for not only Hoyle, but also other teachers around 

the country was to “give providers time to explore, experiment, and plan,” with 

extra time to explore the technology themselves it will give them a greater 

understanding of it in turn helping their students more, and also helping them figure 

out whether or not it would be suitable for their students, and how they would take 

to the activity. Also, being able to schedule in time during there day to do a bit of 

“technology planning” could drastically improve the usage of technology in their 

classroom. 

 

Although our interviewer Hoyle did have some initial worries about digital 

learning, she also had an open, and positive mind towards it. With this kind of 

attitude, and with the right kind of training that was outlined in the RAND article, 

digital learning in the early childhood setting can be incredibly beneficial for the 

future of America.

 

Bibliography 

Bridging the Digital Divide: A Forum on Using Technology in Early Childhood 

Education. (n.d.). Retrieved November 2, 2015. 

Daugherty, L., Dossani, R., Johnson, E., & Wright, C. (n.d.). Getting Early Childhood 

Educators Up and Running: Creating Strong Technology Curators, 

Facilitators, Guides, and Users. Retrieved November 4, 2015