In my own research with secondary school teachers I found that the majority had extensive ICT skills but were reluctant to transfer these to school.    This was mainly due to a lack of resources in school, time to develop ideas for the use of ICT and a feeling that perhaps it was not relevant to their work.  Many teachers owned a wide range of technology at home but used little if any in school.  Perhaps you might want to start with a quick survey of the ICT they use at home and work from there.

I think that in such an early age ict skills would include basic forms of computer literacy. For example, the way in which a teacher can implement simple tasks using computer or software, with which the educational procedure could be supported.

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Malaysia Preschool

• Curriculum should address global skills such as ICT skills and higher order of thinking skills including conflict resolutions
• Need ICT workshops for teachers to upgrade their ICT skills

http://www.wseas.us/e-library/conferences/2013/CambridgeUSA/EET/EET-26.pdf

Dr Curugan, the Australian Institute for Teaching & School Leadership publish the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, to which I have provided a link, below.  In addition to the Professional Standards, AITSL produces a subsidiary set of statements pertaining to ICT competence, and I've attached a pdf document that provides these statements.  All of the information on the Standards is provided in the website.  Best wishes for your research.

http://www.teacherstandards.aitsl.edu.au/Home

Are you interested in the general ICT Skills of teachers or  particular ICT skills needed for teaching  in Pre-school?

At least, un Québec, for the pre-K and K (4-5 years old) children these skills do correspond to theese described previously by Dr. Mouratoglou. The future (or actual) preschool teachers need to master the same competences (digital literacy and ICT management skills) than whatever teachers. They just have to adapt their practices to the characteristics of the kids they are (or will be) working with, taking in consideration their cognitive and conative developmental level... if theyare (or have been) trained to do so.

As a preschool teacher and administrator, we must be at the very least familiar with the computer to reach and search the internet, log into sites and provide proper guidance for the children to play on the computer, tablets, etc., to familiarize themselves with games and keyboards, and gain working knowledge of digital information systems.  These systems are used extensively once they enter kindergarten for placement testing and PARCC testing (Common Core). The exposure they get with us will only help them to excel once they leave us.

You are conducting research on preschool teacher's ICT skills and not on pre schoolers hence nothing to wonder. In fact ICT may be an effective tool for pre school teachers if used properly. Effective teaching for preschoolers is multi sensory training and a play way method. Programmed Instructions based on ICT (CAI for example) is an effective method which includes the component of a multisensory approach as well as play way. Hence teachers of pre schoolers must have all the skills of ICT equal or more in comparison to other non-preschool teachers. I support Prof. Umachandran's view. Now it depends upon other constraints and objectives of your research what variable you are going to include what skill you may consider.

In my own research with secondary school teachers I found that the majority had extensive ICT skills but were reluctant to transfer these to school.    This was mainly due to a lack of resources in school, time to develop ideas for the use of ICT and a feeling that perhaps it was not relevant to their work.  Many teachers owned a wide range of technology at home but used little if any in school.  Perhaps you might want to start with a quick survey of the ICT they use at home and work from there.

Cf. Dr Lupson comment: The "non transfer" of the computer than Digital technos competencies from their "personnal usage" toward "pedagogical/school context" is a yet widely documented phenomenon with all levels (elementary/secondary) school teachers. Few researchs have reached similar results on the last 15 years with the pre-k and k teachers (many of theese in Italy). For instance, the "non transfer" situation has been documented (sorry in french) systematically in Québec since our 2003 survey. During the same timeline,  surveys adressed to random samples of students and conversely with teachers have reached the same conclusions. By the same token, for what I know many studies have shown that the "general discourse" based on the "Prensky's digital native discours believers" , still wihout solid empirical foundations and widely questionned since Selwyn, 2009; Calvini, Fini, Ranieri et Picci, 2012; Li et Ranieri, 2010; Hargittai, 2010 and others works, based on empirical evidences, future teachers and actual young ones do not master other than basic and functional digital competences at least in the major part of the "industrialized countries". Otherwise, I do agree with Dr Kumar's last comment, eg.  "Hence teachers of pre schoolers must have all the skills of ICT equal or more in comparison to other non-preschool teachers. I support Prof. Umachandran's view. Now it depends upon other constraints and objectives of your research what variable you are going to include what skill you may consider". If you (or somebody you know) does read french, there are some interesting papers published on the topic (in France) fot instance: http://archives-sonores.bpi.fr/media/doc_acc/0005/20140121-QueAveAR-PJ02_02Bpi.pdf#page=92 and https://edutice.archives-ouvertes.fr/edutice-00676175/document or http://rfp.revues.org/978 There are a lot of Dr. Karsenti and Dr. Colin published works on solid empirical evidences based on canadian (Québec's) data, but the papers are maily in french also. On the methods, if it might be somehow usefull: http://www.editlib.org/p/40277/

some papers show about impact of ICT for preschool teachers:

Hi April,

As with many of these types of questions (skills of teachers in ICT, or maths, or science etc.) the answer, I believe, often comes down to a competence level in terms of the actual skills and then a more important level of competence in terms of teaching. There seems to be a push in the media, at least in Australia, to focus on content rather than pedagogy. In a pre-school setting, I would take it as a given that new teachers will have the level of ICT skill required (e.g. basic web tools, presentation tools etc); however, the question of whether or note they have the pedagogical skills to teach children these skills is a moot point. In the case of the latter, I would support the endorsement of Helen Chick's work and also a viewing of the AITSL standards suggested in the previous answer. The main point of both being that ICT skills are an important "end" in their own right but much more importantly they are the "means to an end" in terms of the overall education of the pre-school students. Regards, Kevin.

New technology is everywhere. Children grow up with a several screens and get about 80 % of new informations from them. We must prepare preschool teachers to undersand pedagogical effects of ICT and to enable them for proper use. Standards in Europe is ECDL (www.ecld.com ( with additional knowledge in educational technology, methods, forms, and WEB based technology.

Hello April-there has been much interest in the technology skills of teachers (including preschool teachers) and the implications for pedagogy. The work of Marina Bers (2008) comes to mind. The issue appears to be whether or not ICTs are used to generate creative (or multidimensional thought) as opposed to the opposite (unidimensional thought). Yelland and Kilderry (2010) write about this. I have also explored this issue and I hope this answer helps your emerging research focus.

Here's my 2 cents,

First, a distinction between teachers' personal ICT competence and professional ICT competence needs to be made. For example, in Ioanna Palaiologou's (2016) study preschool teachers reported high personal ICT self efficacy but low professional ICT self efficacy.

Second, teachers' ICT skills shouldn't be measured only as functional skills (i.e. what programs and devices one masters) but also in terms of pedagogical skills. I recently published a paper (see attachment) in which I have explored the pedagogical beliefs that guide preschool teachers' ICT use. According to my findings ICT enhanced practices aren't always pedagogically sound.

Best,

Pekka

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