To realize the potential benefits of technology use in early childhood education (ECE), and to ensure that technology can help to address the digital divide, providers, families of young children, and young children themselves must have access to an adequate technology infrastructure. The goals for technology use in ECE that a technology infrastructure should support are to improve learning and to build digital literacy. Identifying specific requirements for this infrastructure of devices, software, and connectivity is neither a straightforward nor an easy undertaking, because many factors — such as the absence of agreed standards of performance for technology infrastructure and the rapid pace of technology development — make an "adequate infrastructure" a moving target. In this policy brief, the authors identify challenges and examine how a wide variety of government and nongovernmental stakeholders might collaborate to define what constitutes an adequate technology architecture, and to help ensure that it is realized.
Lindsay Daugherty,Rafiq Dossani,Erin-Elizabeth Johnson,et al. How Much and What Kind? Identifying an Adequate Technology Infrastructure for Early Childhood Education. 2014-01-01.