Using ICT to enhance role play

This can be one of the most powerful ways of integrating ICT in an Early Years setting, enabling the children to become familiar with a range of equipment, promoting greater awareness of ICT in the wider world and enhancing role play experiences.

There is a range of ICT equipment which can be added to any role play area or role play box which can be used with the minimum of training. Examples of this could be electronic cash registers (shops, cafes, vets etc), answerphones (doctor's surgery, cafe, office etc), kitchen equipment such as a 'working' microwave, 'boiling' kettle, washing machine etc. All of the latter have more potential than the wooden versions often seen in home corners, as they offer opportunities for early control (e.g. programming the microwave and counting down with it), increase interest in the children and offer provide a means for discussion about equipment in their own homes or settings.
Other useful equipment includes a mobile phone (toy or defunct phone - with the batteries removed); timers of all sorts, a calculator, programmable toys (click on the link for further information), old keyboards and computers etc etc. This sort of equipment can be used in many different types of role play and if they are made available to the children will be used in very many ingenious ways!
It is important to remember, however, that for children to reap the full benefit of this equipment, they need the opportunity to talk about their choices with an adult, to link their play to 'real life', to begin to make comparisons between ICT and non-ICT methods and to begin to justify their thinking.

Another way of integrating ICT into role play is to use the class computer (moved into the role play area or not). This is a method used successfully by Mount Pleasant Nursery, Shrewsbury. They used the SEMERC CD ROM 'At the Doctor's', a program specifically designed to enhance role play, whereby children can diagnose illness, prescribe cures and print out prescriptions, in their Doctor's Surgery area. The children happily used this program alongside handwritten appointments books and doctor's notes. There are 2 similar CDs, also by SEMERC, entitled 'At the Vet's' and 'At the Cafe', also very useful.
Alternatively, some schools are beginning to create their own My World 3 screens which children could use to enhance role play. Alternatively, simply allow the children to use programs which which they are familiar (Clicker, WriteOn, Paint etc) in a role play situation (e.g. writing letters, marking the register, creating 'mug shots' etc). A QX3 microscope attached to a PC is a very powerful tool and could be used as part of a laboratory or detective's office, although children will need some training in its use beforehand.

If your setting is lucky enough to have purchased a Hasbro CD playset (e.g. The Kitchen, Tonka Joe's Workshop or the Supermarket), these can also be used most successfully to support role play.