Final Reflection .

Final Reflection.

I have noticed that the impact of technology in early childhood education is immense. I have now realised that technology is more than just a gadget. My whole perspective about technology has changed. I am aware now of how the teachers in my centre are fostering children’s learning about and through technology. It has been a great journey for me to technological learning. It will continuously grow and this is the beginning. In this course children’s development is expanded through “experiences and understanding of people, places, events and things” (Ministry of Education, 1996.p.21). “This course combines the two interconnected learning areas of technology and social sciences within the socio-cultural context of learning development in the early years” (class PowerPoint).

I have learned so much from the other student’s feedback on my post. It promoted interactive learning because in every group there were five members. It was a helpful tool for me to establish an encouraging and nurturing discussion space that enhances student’s reflection. They gave me so much positive feedback, for example, one of the students said, “I really admire that you are proactive”.  This gave me confidence to try out more technology with the children in future.  One of the blogger wrote, “I liked your idea of blogging or just simple emailing as made me think about how I can actually use technology to share children learning with their parents.”

Other bloggers extended my knowledge and understanding about technology’s effect on children’s learning. I thought that I was learning alongside the children but one of the students suggested that the children took the lead and became the teachers. This explained why this was a successful activity that was popular with the children. It will involve technology in their play which gives them ideas to use technology in the centre.

One of the blogger challenged me that we should not sub-consciously stereotype the abilities and capabilities of the children. And it is up to teacher to educate themselves in technology. We should use more open ended questions to know how much the children know about technology. I learnt that it is our responsibility to educate themselves in this area.

I have realised that we early childhood teachers enhance children’s learning through the meaningful use of ICT. It enables them to enhance their relationships and broaden their horizon by exploring the wider world (Ministry of Education, 2009, p.2). The children at this early stage knew the functions of cell phone, IPods, camera and computer and they also know how to operate them. It is amazing to see children using technology so much in their day to day life. Even in my life time the technology has changed so much and has reshaped the way I live my life.

I realised that technology is an important area of the early childhood curriculum along with, for example mathematics and science within the principles, strands and goals. That is why there is an increasing awareness of the technological world that we live in a world that people have created and changed through technology. I found that technology fits in early childhood curriculum document Te Whāriki because it has few direct references to technology (Ministry of Education, 1996). I have realised that technology has got some issues. First which I thought that the children who use the technology miss the outdoors and social interaction, which I think is normal. To gain something, obviously we have to lose something. But I have some strategies to overcome this. Balance the outdoors with the indoor life .I will facilitate the children with the interesting outdoor activities. For example water play, running, climbing carpenting, long jumps and high jumps. And we should not allow children to use technology in isolation. And I realised that sometimes anything inappropriate comes on the computer screen which is not safe for the children. To avoid this we can keep our computer safe by using net safe. I found computer technology very useful to use in early childhood setting. I can see colourful graphics, cute animation and musical tunes on the computer which we cannot do without it. So to identify the real value of a software program, teachers need to ask a basic question “Does this software program help to create learning opportunities that did not exist without it (Tsantis, Bewick, & Thouvenelle, 2003). 

I realised that we early childhood teachers want to scaffold children’s learning in technology. So we need to broaden our understanding of technology and continue to extend our own knowledge and skill base (Smorti, 1999). Overall this whole blogging assignment was an eye opener for me. The lecturer was fun.  She made everything easy for us.

References:-

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 nga mokopuna o Aotearoa .Wellington: Learning Media.

Ministry of Education. (2004). Kei tua o te pae assessment for learning: Early childhood exemplars

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

Tsantis, L. A., Bewick, C. J., & Thouvenelle, S. (2003).  Examining some common