Entry Six

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.