Abstract—With the threat of future global pandemics and
the possible necessity to mandate schools to transition to
temporary online learning, it is imperative to provide
kindergarten teachers with effective pedagogical practices using
technological devices and resources in virtual classrooms. To
address this challenge, this case study aims to discover 1) the
attitudes and beliefs towards digital screen-based technologies
or resources in the virtual classroom, 2) the benefits and
challenges of teaching and learning in virtual kindergarten
classrooms, 3) the digital screen-based technological tools or
resources FDK educators are currently implementing, 4) how
educators used the tools or resources to document play-based
learning virtually, 5) and what do educators need to integrate
technology into their virtual pedagogical practices effectively.
Using semi-structured interviews from 11 early childhood
educators and one teacher-researcher from virtual
kindergarten classrooms in Ontario, Canada, a thematic
content analysis from the typed transcripts and reflective notes
was adopted to generate emerging themes. The findings
demonstrated that 1) educators had a similar positive attitude
towards technology in kindergarten as in other countries
worldwide, 2) the benefits and challenges of virtual teaching
and learning, 3) update on what types of technological devices
and resources educators especially in the virtual milieu, are
using, 4) and ways to support successful technology integration
into virtual pedagogical practices. The findings from this study,
in conjunction with other current research, provide practical
recommendations for virtual kindergarten educators, parents,
school boards, and policymakers.
Index Terms—Virtual teachers, technology-enhanced
classrooms, kindergarten, digital screen-based devices.
The authors are with the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
*Correspondence: mkim574@uwo.ca
Cite: Martin Wolak and Mi Song Kim*, "A Case Study of Virtual Kindergarten Teachers in Technology-Enhanced Classrooms," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 82-92, 2023.
Copyright © 2023 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).