This entry illustrates
what I absorbed and realised from my feedback given on my blog entries four and
five. From what Tegan mentioned, I learned that even though I mentioned
“children showed their funds of knowledge” I did not explain the term very
well. By this I meant that “children do not enter our rooms as empty vessels
willing and eager to be filled, they are each ornate vessels, with beautiful
carvings, deep meanings, filled with knowledge and skills from their families
and cultures” (Ministry of Education, 2007). So linking that definition in with
my provocation, I did not stress that the children knew how to use binoculars
correctly without any guidance from teachers. Additionally, from the feedback
given, I learnt that my initial entries were not as comprehensive as I first
thought and in hindsight I should have had more discussions with the children
about what activities they would have like to do with the binoculars. This would have enabled me
to shape my teaching around the children’s interests. For example, the children
like aeroplanes and binoculars so we could arrange a trip to the airport to
watch planes with binoculars in the future.
Jodine and
Sharlene both gave very valid points regarding entry four. Both of them brought
to my attention that I could have done the digital experience with more than
just one child. I have learned that this would have helped the child understand
the significance of sharing their experiences with others and creating an
opportunity for the children to discuss what they learned and create
opportunities for them to learn from one another. From this experience, they
would learn how to work alongside each other of and build on each other’s funds
of knowledge too (Ministry of Education, 1996). A valuable point that Sharlene
mentioned was figuring out why *Selena did the alphabet starting from the
letter Z. I tried asking *Selena while she was doing the activity but she
replied with “my mum showed me how to”. I should have asked her mother what
sort strategies she uses to teach *Selena the sequence of identifying letters
so that we could use that approach with the children who struggle. This would
have allowed me to get some parental input in our centre and I have learnt the
value of parental learning strategies. This also taught me the importance of
interacting with the children to identify their learning styles, so we can
optimise their learning. The idea of doing the alphabetic game in real life so
that it will introduce the idea of the link of digital technology to real life
experiences (Talay-Ongan, 2005).
Overall I
learned three significant impacts technology can have on children these
include: enriching the early childhood setting, developing a child’s capability
of using ICT and the effects of using ICT with children. Firstly, digital technology if used correctly
can be a way that teacher-child relationships are enhanced and strengthened
(Ministry of Education, 1996). It also serves as a “level playing field” for children with special
needs and it also facilitates the emergence of multi-literacies.
Multi-literacies refers to the way people communicate in the twenty-first century due
to the variety of technologies (Fleer & Jane, 2011). Secondly, in order for
the children of the twenty-first century to fully function in their society
they need to develop their technological literacy and it should be seen as an
essential part of the early childhood curriculum. Lastly, the effects of using
ICT on children are both positive and negative on their well-being. For
instance, the negative physical effects include eye fatigue and poor posture from
extended computer use and the positive effects it could have on a child is that
they are strengthening their fine-motor skills by manoeuvring the devices they
have (O’Rourke and Harrison, 2004). The
social defects could be the aggressive behaviour that occurs when the child is
exposed to violent games and they could isolate themselves from social
encounters with others. The positive effects could be learning how to share
experiences when they are using the computer at day-care (Stephen and Plowman,
2013).
References:
Fleer, M., & Jane,
B. (2011). Design and technology for
children. Frenchs Forest, Australia: Pearson Australia.
Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa:
Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, NEW ZEALAND: Learning Media.
Ministry
of Education. (2007). The New Zealand
curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.
O’Rourke, M., & Harrison, C. (2004). The introduction of new technologies: New
possibilities for early childhood pedagogy. Australian Journal of Early
Childhood, 29(2).
Stephen, C. & Plowman, L. (2013). Digital technologies, play, and learning. Early Childhood Folio,
17(2), 3-8.
Talay-Ongan, A., & Ap, E. A. (Eds.). (2005). Child development and teaching young
children. Southbank, Australia: Thomson Social Science Press.
