Enhancing children's sense of self and community through utilizing computers

Summary

Research has documented the positive effects computers have on children's self-esteem. Computers can also play an important role in enhancing each child's sense of self. Storytelling, journals, and books about the self provide valuable avenues to help children express their thoughts, ideas, feelings, and dreams. With teacher guidance, each of these activities affirms the children's identity and helps them better understand themselves.

For children to have high self-esteem, they need to feel a sense of belonging. In an inclusive environment, teachers use computers to build a classroom identity by graphing class information, recording classroom activities, and/or creating class books. Each of these activities not only helps to build a class identity but enables each child to develop a framework of herself or himself in relationship to the world.