The (draft) english national curriculum : an early childhood perspective

The writers of the draft English national curriculum are to be applauded for the inclusion of a broad, contemporary view of literacy, encompassing viewing and creating a range of digital and multimodal texts in addition to reading and writing more traditional paper-based texts. Many children have experiences with new technologies at home and in their early childhood settings. By the time these children come to school, they are able to create and make meaning from a range of digital and multimodal texts, using technologies such as computers, audio recorders and video cameras. As Yelland and her colleagues have outlined, these new technologies enable very young children to create quite complex texts without the need to rely on highly developed fine motor skills, phonemic awareness or grapho-phonic skills. In order to build on their literacy strengths, young learners need access to new technologies in classrooms.