Final reflection

This course really has given me a great opportunity to be open-minded and see technology from a broader sense, which was that almost everything involved in our daily life is the product of the advanced technology. Techonology has brought us so many possibilities in our life and definitely has made our life easier in a lot of ways. For example, the blog. Through blogging with each other, we could easily read each other's mind and have access to lots of meaningful intereactions and information.

In early childhood field, we are teaching our next generation. We should be more aware of the importance of technology that it's playing in children's life. Children are the nation's hope and the world's hope. If they don't learn to adapt and innovate, they would be failed late on in the near feture as the whole nation requies people to be skilled and educated. "New Zealand is part of a world revolution in communication, technology, work, and leisure. Change in these and other spheres is a feature of everyday life" (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.18).

New Zealand needs its young people to be able to contribute fully to its well-being, and able to meet the changing needs of the workplace and the economy (Fleer & Marilyn, 1997).

Technology is a field of human activity and children should be able to know it and have access to it form a variety of contexts (Fisher & Garvey, 1992). Technology as a perespective or thread that can be emphasised in any early childhood learning experience or activity (Haugland & Wright, 1997). The previous four blogs that I have posted all showed and outlined the importance of technology in children's learning and development. They all hightlighted that technology played a role as thread to help children gain more meaningful and valueable learning experiences later on. Some of my classmates also shared thoughtful suggestions with me to follow up and to further children's learning. I really appreciated that as it was mutual learning through technology. We are all here to support each other and to help our next generation to benefit more.

The learning outcomes of this course are really great as I feel that I start seeing things in a broader sense, having a more open mindset and making me think more. Through blogging with each other, we talked and discussed meaningful issues which has happened and will be happening in our daily life. 

As a learner myself, my ideas about technology are still developing, and I expect they will change as I continue to reflect on what is happening for our children as we explore technology all togetehr in our setting.

References:
Fisher, R. & Garvey, J., (1992). Investing technology. Great Britian: Simon and Schuster Education.

Fleer, M. (1997). The Technical Language Children Use At Home. Early Childhood Folio. NZCER.

Haugland, S. W. & Wright, J. L. (1997). Young children and technology: A world of discovery. Boston:    Allyn & Bacon.

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whariki: He Whariki matauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media

6 contributions to other students' blogs and 2 contributions to the course blog

http://multiplyland.blogspot.com/2011/04/digital-microscope-insects-have-been.html?showComment=1303547342513#c4894631099857442648

http://3mi1yngmh.blogspot.com/2011/04/technology-blessing-or-curse.html

 

http://mamaawhi.blogspot.com/2011/04/ko-wai-te-kai-ringawere-whos-cook-here.html#comments

http://mindycc.blogspot.com/2011/04/baking-time-yummy-chocolate-cake-by.html?showComment=1303548475876#c4886242223061313258


http://laudebra.blogspot.com/2011/04/writing-and-drawing-with-chalk.html?showComment=1303682156149#c237640195553700634


http://ladybug-veronica.blogspot.com/2011/04/posts-2-how-do-you-use-tongs.html?showComment=1303683091159#c1037655259195452176


http://tamarwk.blogspot.com/2011/03/welcome-to-blogging-for-people-place.html?showComment=1303684026745#c2795108974854573894


http://tamarwk.blogspot.com/2011/03/martin-robot-man.html?showComment=1303685426473#c5490524137285687338

I am the driver!

E was always the one who is fond of hopping into the little car and driving it around our outdoor area. He just started mastering the balance to walk but still wasn't totally confident. For him, it was a great opportunity to practise his leg muscles when he played on those transportation tools.

He slowly moved himself to the side of the car and opened the car door. He kept saying: "Car, car." His verbal language was really getting expanding these days. As long as he heard anything, he would just imitate the sound and start repeating the words. It's the best time for young children to absorb knowledge and gain skills when they are playing (Fischer & Gillespie, 2003). 

He was at the stage where he was also trying to match the words with the real object. He pushed himself in and got really cheerful once he was in the car. He kept turning the wheel round and round. I could tell that he felt really confident to function his own body parts and he gained so much fun and excitement from doing that. I recognized this teachable moments (Haugland & Wright, 1997) and started singing: "The wheels on the bus go round and round..."

Then he realized that the car door hadn't been shut properly so he was trying and trying to use up all his strength to pull it back. I demonstrated positive teaching strategy and started encouraging E : "Kia Kaha, E!" Children need to be encouraged when they are coming across difficulties (MOE, 1996). He was looking around as if he was checking whether it was safe enough for him.

There we went! Now he could fully enjoy his driving. The way he acted was totally impressed me. It seemed that he was such an experienced driver and he looked up and down to check everything was all right. He was ready to go. He was also press the horn in the middle and said: "Beep, beep!" He was so clever. So in order to extend his vocabulary, I said: "Wheel,. E, say wheel." He imitated exactly what I said before. "Where is the break?" I asked him. He repeated: "Break." But obviously he wasn't really sure what I was talking about. So I directed him to the bottom part f the car. "Here it is, E. This is called break." He kept repeating and looked at it.Teachers should be as facilitators to scaffold children's learning and view their learning as valuable while working alongside children (Porter, 2003)

Then he went very fast and all the way he was doing back and forward. "E, reverse your car."He didn't get it obviously. Then I helped him pull the call backward and tried to tell him that it was reversing. Then I pushed him forward and told him that it was driving.Teachers should facilitate children and scaffold their learning when needed (Crain, 1999). He was so satisfied with the whole process and he was getting really good at walking the car with his strong legs. They were moving super fast and were very flexible.

During this learning experience, E's language had been enhanced and his vocabulary had been expanded. He was displaying a range of positive learning dispositions, which were curiosity, playfulness, confidence as well as problem-solving. He was also observing, imitating and also linking his own experience with real daily life. He was building up a lot of confidence to walk with his legs and controlling his body parts freely (Ministry of Education, 1996). In a world, he learned and gained so much from this meaningful and valuable learning experience he initiated by himself.

References:

Crain, W. (1999 ). Theories of Development. Concepts and applications. （5th, ed）The City College of the Cith University of New York. Upper Saddle River. New Jersey.

Fischer, M. A. & Gillespie, C. S. (2003). Computers and young children's development. Young children 58 (4): 85-91.

Haugland, S. W. & Wright, J. L. (1997). Young children and technology: A world of discovery. Boston:    Allyn & Bacon.

Porter, L. (2003). Valuing children. Australian Journal of Early Childhood, 28(2), 1-8.

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whariki matauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

Great photographers...

After I took some photos of E, M came and stood beside me: "photos." I assumed that she must want to have a look at the photos that I took so I kneeled down and started showing her all the photos. As Te Whariki stated that teachers need to be sensitive to individul's verbal and non-verbal signals (Ministry of Eudcation, 1996). 

 She was so cheerful to review all those photos and at the same time, she was trying to touch the camera. I read her non-verbal signal again and realized that she might want to puch the button and take photos. When I passed the camera to her: "Would you like to take some photos, M？" She was so happy and took it over straightaway.

I observed her at the beginning. Obviously she didn't know how to take photos as we never gave camera to those toddlers before. But why not ？  Actually I could let them have access to it and have a hand-on experience as long as I supervise her using it properly (Fleer, 1996)

On the first picture, M was trying to figure out how to use the camera first. I was right there beside her and I thought it would be good to see her exploring it on her own. Then she got frustrated and passed it back to me. I asked her to stand at my right side so that she could see my demonstration clearly. I took a photo together with her so that she knew which button to push. 

I left the camera on for her so that it was easy for her to just go and click the button. She went to the doll house and bent down to take a photo of a doll. But unfortunately the lense automatically went back becasue of non-clicks.

The second photo showed that she was pushing the on and off button herself and she did it. The lense came out again. She looked back at me and I could see her big smile."Ka Pai, M!" She felt very proud of herself and just a click, she took a photo. She brought the camera back to me and I reviewed with her. She was jumping up and down to express her excitement. It wasn't a great photo and even it was out of focus and we could hardly see anything, but I totally enjoyed the experience of working alongside her and facilitating her through the whole process. What a wonderful experience! As MacNaughton and Williams (2009) stated that, we should let the children to explore techniques and we work as facilitators alongside them.

L saw what M had done and even took a photo all by herself. She came to me and implied that she wanted to have a turn as well. "I do it." Then I did the same thing as I showed M and now L could try it out. But it seemed that L wasn't really interested in taking photos and she just wanted to have a turn to feel the camera.

The picture above showed that she turned the camera the other way around and she was trying to be in the photo. But that didn't matter at all as long as they both had a great hand-on experience and they explored technology. Hand-on experience is vital during the exploration of technology (Helm & Katz, 2001).

That was such a neat experience for children to gain and for me to facilitate and support them with the camera. I used a range of teaching strategies, such as demonstarting, prasing etc. to scaffold them and encouraged them to learn (Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett & Farmer, 2008).

In this whole learning experience, camera as a learning tool and faciliator played such a vital role in children's learning and development. Both M and L explored around it and tried out different ways to play with it. They used their own working theories to test, feel and learn (MOE, 1996). They were thinking and doing problem-solving. They were using eye-hand coordination to gain a new skill. They were linking their previous knowledge with the current situation.

From this experience on, they could feel quite confident and confotable to take photos next time as they both had a chance to see how it worked. For M, I'm sure that when she sees teachers or her parents taking photos next time, it would remind her of this experience and she can be quite confident to try to take photos herself. She could link this learning to her real life experience. It also helped her to build up very positive learning dispositions, such as playfulness, curiosity and confidence (Scholl, 2005).

References:

Arthur, L., Beecher, B., Death, E., Dockett, S., & Farmer, S., (2008). Programming and planning in early childhood settings (4th ed.). Victoria, Australia: CENGAGE Learning.

Fleer, M. (1996). Science for children: developing a personal approach to teaching. Australia: Prentice Hall. 

Helm, J., & Katz, L., (2001). Young investigators the project approach in the early years. New York: Teachers College Press.

MacNaughton, G., & Williams, G., (2009). Techniques for teaching young children: Choices in theory and practice (3rd ed.). French Forrest, NSW, Australia: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whariki: He Whariki matauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

Scholl, M. (2005). Social studies in action. Young Children. Vol 62 (4) pp. 1-5.

fun cycling!

It was such a nice day outside and as soon as we opened the door, M was the very first to get out and quickly hopped onto a bike. The children were all really fond of cycling and they always tried to have turns on the few bikes that we have. Whoever got the first turn on the bikes felt so good about themselves and as if they were the winner.

M started her bicycle trip and she was so confidently going here and there. She could completely master the direction and knew exactly where the bike was going to. Some times she pushed herself with both legs and some times she just waited the bike to go on its own.

She was having lots of positive learning dispositions through this learning experience. For example, curiosity, experimenting and playfulness.

When I turned around, S was on a bike as well. He was totally enjoying the bike and he held the bike's front arms up high so that the front wheel was up in the air. It cracked me up and the way he did it was so funny. I was wondering that he must has seen those motorbike racers. He was trying to link his previous knowledge with his real practice or he might just be so creative and playful.

Those plastic bikes were products of the technology again. Through having experience on them, children were just gaining so much and they could under how things work, which is at the heart of technological practice (Dunn, 1999). Their learning also has been expanded through experiences and understanding of people, places and things (Ministry of Education, 1996).

They learned that technology is part of human activity, experience and exploration from a variety of contexts(Fleer, 1996).

 I wanted to extend and facilitate their learning through more meaningful scaffoldings. I would like to check out on youtube and show them some video clips on how to make a real bike. I want to talk to them and let them think why we need bikes. Bikes help us save time to get to the destination faster and make our life convenient at one stage. So the core of this is to let them know that technology is about helping people and save problems (Smorti, 1999).

Children could see the whole history of inventing bikes so that they could start making sense of the world by themselves. They gain their understanding through looking at the people, places, things and events.

New Zealand is part of a world revolution in communication, technology, work, and leisure. Change in these and other spheres is a feature of every day life (MOE, 1996).

Reflecting back on this whole scenario, I strongly felt the importance of technology has brought to our every day's life and to children's life in early childhood. Children were learning how to bicycle, why we have bikes, how they were made and they were linking old and new knowledge together. At the same time, they were also building lots of positive learning dispositions which would benefit them later on. The most important thing was that they were having so much fun.


References:
Dunn, A. (1991). 'How Things Work' Series.Lifting by Levers, The Power of Pressure, Simple Slopes,     Wheels at Work.   East Sussex: Wayland Publishers.

Fleer, M. (1996). Science for children: developing a personal approach to teaching. Australia: Prentice Hall. 

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whariki: He Whariki matauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

Smorti, S. (1999). Technology in Early Childhood. Early Education, No.19 Autumn 1999.

 

1st Reflective blog

I was thinking about my blog page and what to write for the significance of use of technology on children's learning and development this morning while I was looking after A. I started being aware of the resources that we were using at the centre. Looking around, I realized that all most everything in our setting was the product of the andanced technology. For example, a ballpoint pen, brick, racehorse, clothes peg, radio and books, etc.

Technology is everywhere and we are living in a world that we have created and changed through technology (Smorti, 1999).

I was just thinking by myself and when I turned around, I saw A was having a good look at the phone which was another product of technology. He pulled the phone right in front of his face so that he could have a close look. He was looking at the numbers and also tried to press them. Then he looked up at me and smiled. I dailed the numbers and at the same time I was reading them out loudly: "1, 2, 3...". He was very cheerful and tried to use his little figer to press again.

Then he felt that it could be moved around so he started pushing it backward and forward. He was giggling so much and was so pleased by his new discovery. He kept pushing it forward and then grabbbed it and was completely in his own zone. He was having so much fun and I was wondering what he was thinking about.

It was just a normal learning experience which we could see and is happening everyday in our centre. I reflected on the whole learning process and was amazed that how much A was gaining through this simple learning experience. He was feeling the texture of the phone and using his own working theories to make sense of the world. He was having a visual familarity with the numbers, which could be linked to mathmatics. He was also gaining the confidence to control this body part (fingers) and functioning them properly. He was also exploring the resource as well as the environment (Ministry of Education, 1996). In a word, he was getting so much out of this learning experience.

Te Whariki (MOE, 1996) stated that in order to participate in this world, our children will need the confidence to develop their own perspectives as well as the capacity to continue acquiring new knowledge and skills. Technology is thus an important area of the early childhood curriculum along with and it can definitely provide the opportunity for our children to continue acquiring new knowledge.

As technology plays such a vital role in children's learning and development, we educators need to raise our awareness and appreciate the importance (Smorti, 1999). When we scaffold children's learning in this area, we need to broaden our understanding of technology and continue to extend our own knowledge and skill base.

References:

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whariki: He Whariki matauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

Smorti, S. (1999). Technology in Early Childhood. Early Education, No.19 Autumn 1999.