Diana Sharp
Learning Technology Center
Vanderbilt University

Congressional Briefing: Transitions to School: What Helps Children Succeed?

Sponsored by:
The Congressional Children Caucus
The Bipartisan House Reading Caucus
The American Psychological Association
The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues

Beginning in 1990, the Young Children's Literacy Project at Peabody College of Vanderbilt has explored the use of technology for early literacy support. Early research was based on the idea that early language experiences benefit from rich visual support, as when a mother in a grocery store talks to her children about the fruits and vegetables there. Initial studies revealed that at-risk children who often have great difficulty in talking about stories showed marked increases in their ability to talk about the stories when the stories had video support. This was true even when only the beginning of the story was accompanied by video. Consistent with cognitive theories, the video at the beginning of the story appeared to act as a framework, helping children to develop an initial mental model of the scenes and characters in the story. Children could use this mental model to understand later sentences about the story and to engage in discussions about the story. Video not only helped at-risk children with story discussions, but also helped push non-at-risk children farther in story-related activities. Moreover, this support was most effective when combined with multimedia tools that help children create books.

In partnership with Applied Learning Technologies, this research led to the development of the Little Planet Literacy Series. Each collection in the series has an anchor video story. Children use software to create multimedia books about the story, and these books are printed out to share with friends and classmates. Other activities in the program include books for decoding practice, tools for creating original stories from scratch, and links to award-winning children's literature.

In one study, inner-city children in the program showed comprehension of the video story that greatly exceeded the comprehension of children from the same school who watched the video but did not participate in the program. Moreover, the performance of children in the program was indistinguishable from that of high verbal, private-school children who also watched the video and answered questions about it. This result is right in line with other studies on the advantages of expertise. Many at-risk children face the problem of how their abilities are perceived by teachers and the expectations that result from those perceptions. Opportunities like technology-supported bookmaking give children the chance to develop expertise and look very different in what they can do, and this can be highly important in changing those perceptions and expectations.

Other data support the program's effectiveness on writing ability and performance on state standardized tests of language skills. Other developments include a game for skill practice (Knock-Knock), work on phonics and word recognition, connections to homes and community centers, a summer program (Project Starfish), and professional development for teachers. Professional development is key, because the most effective kind of teaching that technology can support is a kind of teaching that often requires substantial change from teachers who are not used to using techniques of collaboration and inquiry.

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