Final Reflection

First I would like to start of by saying I loved the use of blogging for this assignment.  I am new to blogging and this is my first blog that I have ever made and I was surprised to find that I actually found the process to be very helpful and enlightening.  Wang (2008) says that blogs engage people in information sharing and reflection and in the case of this assignment I really feel that from the sharing and input I got from my fellow class mates I learnt a great deal more that I would of if I just wrote a essay about technology. 

By reading my fellow students comments about my experiences I found that they gave me a further opportunity to learn further.  A Danish philosopher called Soren Kierkegaard is quoted as saying, “To be a teacher in the right sense is to be a learner (thinkexisit, ND). I am not a teacher, only a fellow student.” I class myself as a teacher and I have always thought that it was my duty to educate the children I care for.  However from this experience of blogging I have learnt that my peers comments have challenged me to learn more so I now class myself as a life long learner and I feel with the technology world changing so rapidly this new out look of being a learner will help me integrate into this technological world.

I have grown up in a technological world and I see myself as quite technologically minded.  However I have learnt that technology is everywhere I found it hard to grasp the notion of non digital technology however after reading  Smorti (1999) and their description of how technology is about making life easier and that technology can be found everywhere I have started to change my view.  I constantly find myself looking around my Centre trying to find anything that was not a form of technology in some way.  Smorti (1999) defines technology as a process aimed at meeting needs and opportunities to develop tools that are important to the community at the time.  As I look around the room at my Centre everything that I can see has been developed to make life easier right down to the children sized chairs which were develop through Maria Montessori vision of resources being child sized to help develop their learning. 

Maria Montessori’s vision was a huge form of risk taking and as smorti suggests risk taking as big part to technology.  In order to develop technology we need to take that risk to want to improve what we already have and from reading my fellow peers comment I realize that I need to be more of a risk taker and move with the times of technology.  I have always seen digital technology as something expensive such as laptops and therefore children should not be allowed to play with them incase they break them.  However I feel I have started to over come this fight my previous thought of “too expensive” and I now see myself giving the children more freedom with digital technology.  I have also found that he children are more than capable of caring for these digital technologies and as a result I feel I now see the children as capable individuals (Ministry of education, 1996).  I feel I have come to this realization through self-reflection and more importantly feedback from my peers through this assignment process.

References:

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa : Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

Smorti, S. (1999) Technology in early childhood. Early Education, 1, 5-10.

ThinkExisit (ND). Learner quotes http://thinkexist.com/quotes/with/keyword/learner/

Wang, H. (2008). Exploring the educational use of blogs in U.S. education. US – China Education Review, 5 (10), 34-37.

comments on blogs

Comments on group members blogs

Manu’s comments

http://manutechece.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/ece-pc-how-addition-of-computer-forthe.html?showComment=1345407954754

http://manutechece.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/capturing-technology-use-of.html?showComment=1345626770295

http://manutechece.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/non-digital-technology.html?showComment=1346537725278

tevita’s comments

http://dfonokalafi.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/at-my-centre-i-noticed-that-children.html

http://dfonokalafi.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/at-my-centre-i-notice-children-were.html

http://dfonokalafi.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/today-some-of-four-year-old-children.html

Ana’s comments:

http://anamapamit.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/ipads.html?showComment=1345628450112

http://anamapamit.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/collage-fun.html?showComment=1346536617874

http://anamapamit.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/a-musical-experience.html?showComment=1346545188774

Rachel’s comments:

http://rachel4laughter.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/stereo-systems.html?showComment=1345715565830

http://rachel4laughter.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/building-blocks.html?showComment=1346547160420

http://rachel4laughter.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/books.html?showComment=1346542799046

references

References:

Kin Wai Michael, S., & Mei Seung, L. (2005). Early Childhood Technology Education: A Sociocultural Perspective. Early Childhood Education Journal, 32(6), 353-358. doi:10.1007/s10643-005-0003-9

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

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

Smorti, S. (1999) Technology in Early Childhood. Early Education, 19, 5-10.

"I will show you how to use your phone"

Today was I big eye opener for me I had forgotten my camera and so I got permission from my head teacher to use my cell phone.  I have only had this phone for less than a week and was still learning how to use it.  I notice one of our new children and was trying to take a photo for her portfolio it was taking a while (as I said the phone was new) I was trying to work out how to zoom in when the child came up to me and said do you want some help.  She asked for my phone and I said “ohh no sorry I can do it” (looking back I think I was scared she may break it) she took the phone and assured me she knew how to use it.  She took my phone and slide her fingers across the screen and said “ see you slide your finger this way to make it bigger and slide it this way to make it smaller” she navigated her way through the applications on my phone and took a photo of me and then found the photo and place it as my background picture. She then gave it back to me and said there do you know how to do it now and then walked back and waited for me to take her picture.  I spoke to this child’s mother when she came to collect her and told her about this interaction.  She then told me that she has the same phone and her daughter plays with the phone all the time.
 

Kin Wai and Mei Sung (2005) suggests that when implementing technology with a child we need to understand their background and in this case I feel I did give enough credit to this child.  I was reluctant to give her my phone as I was scared that she may break it and it was new but it turns out the she knew how to work my phone better that I did.  I know we are living in a fast paced technological world but never did I think that this little 3 and a half-year-old would know how to use my phone better than myself.  Te Whariki (1996) states that children should have an understanding of how technology (Ministry of Education) works and in this case this children as an extensive knowledge of how cell phones work.

 The biggest thing that I learnt from this experience is not only that technology is important but also teachers need to know about the child background and that the interaction between child and adult while using technology should be the main focus.  The child in this scenario is new to our Centre and I noticed that when she was able to show my how to work the phone her confidence grew and the bond between her and I also grew.  I feel that it was me and not the child that learnt the most from this interaction and I now look at technology as not only a learning experience on it own, but it can also (and should also) be used as a level to build relationships.
    

Laptop FUN

At our centre we are lucky enough to have been given a laptop for each staff member this has been a great experience as before we only had one laptop (For the head teacher ) and one main computer.  This became very frustrating as a lot of the time the main computer was being used by our admin staff and our head teacher was usually using her so documentation became very difficult and by the time we did get a chance to get on the computer we teacher had either forgot the learning experience or had accumulated so much learning stories that we rushed through them and the end product was not as great.

Smorti (1999) explains technology as something that make life easier and in this regard our laptops have greatly made our lives at the centre easier.  Now during our non contact time we are able to get the learning stories and documentation down easier with no rush because we no longer have to wait for computer time. 

Another great aspect that I did not realise about the laptops is that we can use them with the children.  I would never have thought this before because I always thought that laptops were too expensive and there was no way I would allow the children to use it the other teachers in my centre also had the same feeling.  However we have a new head teacher who is changing our perspective she often uses her laptop with the children she notices what the children are interested in and looks up videos on you tube to help extend that interest.  For example a few of our boys in the centre have developed a big interest in dinosaurs so daily she asked them open ended questions about dinosaurs and then uses the laptop to extend their answers.   

Thanks to this teacher lead all us teacher in the centre now feel very comfortable letting the children use the laptops. We talked to them about if proper use of the laptop for example making sure it stays on the table and the children know they must not walk around with it.  Williams and McNaughton (2009) stress that technology is very much a part of the children lives and I now realise that by making assumptions that the children may break the laptop therefore it’s out of the question to let them use it id hindering the children learning.  The children have taking responsibility with the laptops and constantly recite the rules to new children who are using the laptops.  I have also been amazed and how well the children know how to use the laptop they need little or no assistance from us teacher anymore to use the laptop as they have learnt to solve problems for themselves.  The children now have a great understand of how the laptops work and in turn have started to develop the knowledge of how technology can help them (Ministry of Education 1996) as they are constantly searching for answers to question they may have and us teachers encourage this rather than just giving them a answer.  However there is always a teacher nearby watching for safety to make sure the child does not go into something inappropriate however this hardly happens and when it does it is dealt with in a quick but calm manner so that it doesn’t defer that children from wanting to use the computer.

This experience has really made me rethink how I view children I have always thought that I viewed them as capable individual however I now realise that I tend to think otherwise in some cases.  However I feel this experience has helped me to push thought my perception that children should not have laptop because they are too expensive and I am glad I have because the positives of the laptop use with children far outweighs the negatives.