“to infinity and beyond” impact of an EVA in early childhood

Abstract

The situation of early childhood regarding technology is at a disadvantage compared to primary and secondary levels, as some teachers fear changing their pedagogical practices and lack knowledge regarding the handling and utilization of technological tools at early ages. This unfamiliarity leads to the belief that it is not advisable to involve technology in students’ activities, much less integrate it into their school context. Hence, there arises the need to implement an innovative strategy capable of generating meaningful learning that allows for the internalization of knowledge in a playful, motivating, and participatory manner, where children take ownership of their knowledge, and their experiences are truly meaningful. Thus, a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) becomes the perfect ally in our pedagogical endeavor to strengthen students’ development of basic cognitive processes such as classification, which is essential in acquiring higher-level processes for subsequent levels of schooling. Within the VLE, students will go through several stations created from the articulation of the classroom project “To Infinity and Beyond,” where they are presented with a series of activities allowing them to appropriate some knowledge about the universe and, based on that, overcome challenges presented to them in order to work on all dimensions of development, with special emphasis on the construction of logical thinking.

This environment was designed under the ADDIE model, which allows building material for effective and meaningful teaching from its stages of analysis (identifying the context, the problem, and the characteristics of the subjects), design (outlining how to achieve educational goals to address the identified problem), development (production and assembly of resources to conduct relevant functional tests), and evaluation (description of the strategy, instruments to be used, and the type of experts who will evaluate the environment for implementation with the group of students).

It is concluded, then, that incorporating virtual environments in early childhood and allowing the use of technological tools to promote learning processes is a pedagogical strategy that not only fosters the acquisition of digital skills but also allows for the meaningful, assertive, and motivating construction of knowledge in students.