Reflection Three: Our office
Two boys and one girl are sitting around a table, each has a computer keyboard, mouse, and a phone in front of them, there is also a camera on the table. D says to the others, “I’ll do the typing on the computer and you answer the phone S”. “I’m gunna put the photos onto the computer”, says DM. “Yeah, then we can print them out aye”, says D. DM picked up the camera and pushed the button, and opened the side part and pretended to hook it into the front of the keyboard. D sat typing on the keyboard, while talking to S about the phone calls they were getting. The children sat working alongside each other, and commenting all the time on what they were doing.
Computers, cameras and certainly phones and mobile phones are
now common place in most homes in New Zealand. The significance of children
role playing using the computer equipment at the centre, and pretending to hook
the camera into the computer, means they obviously have some prior knowledge of
the functions and uses of the technology they have been exposed to. In enabling
the children to ‘practice’ and experience using the technology, I feel we can
encourage an early start to learning with a resource that is now essential to
our daily lives. As Hatherley (2009) maintains as educators we now rely on
digital technologies for documenting children’s learning and development,
though photos and leaning stories etc. The children should also have the
opportunity to learn alongside the technology that is now common place in all
our daily lives.
As play is vital for our children’s development of social,
emotional, cognitive and motor skills, and when used to its full potential information
and communication technology can enhance children’s development in all these
areas (Bolstad, 2004). When the children are playing in their ‘office space’,
they are learning through role playing and understanding what they have seen
within and outside of the centre, on television, at parent’s and families work
and office areas and at home in general. They are socialising with one another,
and developing their motor and cognitive skills by making sense of what they
have observed previously, and recalling on that knowledge. As Te Whāriki maintains children have a vast
amount of knowledge they bring into the centre environment, and being able to
share this knowledge with others is important for empowering children (Ministry
of Edcuation, 1996).
On reflection of this experience and through further reading I
have realised the need for myself as a teacher to encourage this type of role
playing, as computers are a way of life and the earlier a child can understand
the functionality and uses of this technology, the easier it is for them to
learn. The New Zealand Curriculum conveys the need for children to learn with
and gain knowledge of technology to be able to access and contribute to a
technology driven society (Ministry of Education, 2007). When children have
some knowledge of computer technology they will find its uses not so uncommon for
when they get to primary school where most classes will have a computer for the
children to use. It is now a reality that nearly every job or career children
will head into in the future will require the use of a computer or similar
technology. I feel if we can give children the opportunity to be aware and have
some understanding of technology, they will be more relaxed in future learning.
References:
Bolstad, R.
(2004). The role and potential of ICT in
early childhood education. A review of New Zealand and international
literature. Wellington, New Zealand Council for Educational Research.
Hatherley,
A. (2009). ICT and the greatest technology: A teacher’s mind. Early Childhood Folio, 13, 7-11.
Google
Images. (n.d.) Children using computers. Retrieved from http://www.google.co.nz/imgres?hl=en&biw=1280&bih=673&tbm=isch&tbnid=aZCg89c84B7_QM:&imgrefurl=http://prekandksharing.blogspot.com/2012/09/repurpose-old-technology.html&docid=3AFe2YBtPI8_OM&imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbWDCQZmSQs0PiwhgXDeB7wmiqHEcKb8SG7hlCwWdOsqoMnmUvq_xZZPvydkQ60GbJDR9flqdCdJg2NTLvuskxqpPR0x_KS5XPv7rh6hqdtmmUpjj9Sq7HgyctGXROzDkRHIuqPq0SMHW6/s200/100_3942_2.JPG&w=1600&h=936&ei=Z8cbUvP1Lc7ikgXl9oGgBA&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:33,s:0,i:183&iact=rc&page=2&tbnh=172&tbnw=294&start=14&ndsp=20&tx=162&ty=103
Ministry
of Edcuation. (2007). The New Zealand curriculum. Retrieved from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-documents/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum
Ministry
of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki, he
whaariki mātauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum.
Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.
Erika; I have really enjoyed reading your reflections; they have covered a range of technology that are all relevant to children’s learning. I was particularly drawn to the reflection “Our Office” because of the wide range of technology that the children were able to experiment with. It was great to see that the children had an ‘office’ environment set up and were able to role play what they have seen and know what happens, in their wider environments.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that children should have the opportunity to learn alongside the technology that is now common place in all our daily lives. It is the technology that these children will be using in their daily lives in years to come, so I believe that children should be learning how to use it so that they are prepared for when they do need to use it, rather than the technology being treated as an adult’s toy.
I am assuming that the technology was not connected, so to further extend the children’s experience, you could incorporate real technology. For example; using a real computer alongside a teacher or taking photos with a real camera and then loading them onto the computer and printing them out.