Trend Three: We Need 21st Century Childhoods for 21st Century Kids
By: Tarun Varma
Tags: Early Childhood Education, Insights, Covid 19, Perspective, Reflections

This article is part three of our four article series in early learning and childcare post covid. Read the introduction to the series here.

The world we live in today is not the same as it was 100 years ago, 50 years ago, even 10 years ago. Yet the early childhood education and care industry has not yet provided a framework that is cognizant of our time. As Rachel Carrell, CEO of Koru Kids put it, “we need 21st century childhoods for 21st century kids!” Throughout our conversations, we asked about the role and use of technology in early childhood education. This is a topic that has been debated and discussed at length by many educators, and is particularly relevant for our youngest learners at this critical stage of development.

“We need 21st century childhoods for 21st century kids!” Rachel Carrell, CEO, Koru Kids

The challenges around the role of technology

Technology tools address how we may access tools for information but the human part of technology i.e. how learning happens and to enable it, lags hardware and software development. Providing the ‘best’ technology is not enough. People need to have the will and know how to use it. Technology can be used to communicate and engage with adults. It can provide an avenue to communicate with parents and send resources to teachers. At the sametime, technology that meets learners at their learning level is hard to get right as this World Bank report (page 14) states.

Children are growing up in a world entirely different from before. Devices are everywhere and an essential part of our lives. Let’s build learning around these devices!

Technology is not a tool for directly engaging with young children, particularly those under 3 years old. Yet when it comes to learning between the ages of four to eight we can have our head in the sand about the reality of the number of screens children have access to and we are almost refusing to meet the world where it has arrived at

Technology can enable access but it can also exacerbate the divide for those who do not have access. And this is not a ‘developing world or global south’ problem — 15% of the US has no access to the internet.

Technology and access is, after all the above, still at the smaller scale of providing efficiencies. The bigger challenge is building trust with parents whether it is home based care or at a centre.

A way forward

Co-design with caregivers: To communicate with parents, as a resource for teachers, not directly to engage with young children, we need to co-design with caregivers what provides them information and what enables them to anticipate the huge changes in the early years of their own lives having children

“Technology can help “wean us off the obsession with attendance. Whether the child is at home, school or with their grandparents they have the potential to be learning and being cared for.” Rose Luckin, UCL Educate

Technology can make location irrelevant: technology can help “wean us off the obsession with attendance” as Rose Luckin at UCL Educate says. Whether the child is at home, school or with their grandparents they have the potential to be learning and being cared for. Technology can make location less important than earlier. It can also address barriers language issues can create with linguistic services at low cost.

Reimagination: If we need to enable quality at scale for teachers, administrators and if it has to be sustainable technology will have a role to play. As Joan Lombardi said to us “we have the potential to totally reimagine how we conduct learning in the primary grades knowing children will use these tools for the rest of the foreseeable future” Rather than hoping for a technology budget we should see what experiments we can start in the system using technology