Entry four
While in our centre we have lots of broken technology the
children use them as they are real, taking photos and then looking back at the
screen to see what they have taken and then showing the teachers the photos
they took. While the children get to use
the real cameras at times with a teacher holding it this doesn’t give the
children their full ability on what they can do with technology. I had my phone in my pocket and pulled it out
for one of the children that were still awake (we will call her Jane and she is
two).
Jane knew how to turn my phone on (I put in the password), as I observed Jane she seemed to have very high digital literacy and knew what she was doing when she was scrolling through the phone. Jane found the app that has the galley of photos and understood when going into that how to scroll through the photos on my phone and when she came across a video knew how to get that to play. I kept observing Jane, knowing there wasn’t much she could do to hurt my phone she clicked out of the photos and started moving the screen to the side where she found an app I guess she recognised from home life. Jane found the Youtube app and clicked into that telling me “bus”, so I helped her writing in “wheels on the bus” and she then found the video she wanted and started singing and dancing with the song “children use a variety of technologies for different purposes as they explore their world” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 98).
I noticed that Jane was very interested in the phone, we do have ipads in the centre but they are mainly used for the 3-4 year olds. When we have them in the under two area they are turned onto Youtube for dancing and singing and the children can watch but can’t touch them. We need to look into this a bit more and start letting under twos have more exploration to the ipads with the games, with so many children using parents phones, tablets and ipads at home they have good digital knowledge and with Stephen & Plowman (2013) saying this helps with children’s development learning, social and cultural awareness we should promote children in using technology instead of teachers controlling it. Te Whāriki says that toddlers need to explore their world with what they can have access to, it says books and pictures about their everyday world but technology is now becoming part of their world a lot faster as they understand it and know how to work it faster than adults can.
Jane knew how to turn my phone on (I put in the password), as I observed Jane she seemed to have very high digital literacy and knew what she was doing when she was scrolling through the phone. Jane found the app that has the galley of photos and understood when going into that how to scroll through the photos on my phone and when she came across a video knew how to get that to play. I kept observing Jane, knowing there wasn’t much she could do to hurt my phone she clicked out of the photos and started moving the screen to the side where she found an app I guess she recognised from home life. Jane found the Youtube app and clicked into that telling me “bus”, so I helped her writing in “wheels on the bus” and she then found the video she wanted and started singing and dancing with the song “children use a variety of technologies for different purposes as they explore their world” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 98).
I noticed that Jane was very interested in the phone, we do have ipads in the centre but they are mainly used for the 3-4 year olds. When we have them in the under two area they are turned onto Youtube for dancing and singing and the children can watch but can’t touch them. We need to look into this a bit more and start letting under twos have more exploration to the ipads with the games, with so many children using parents phones, tablets and ipads at home they have good digital knowledge and with Stephen & Plowman (2013) saying this helps with children’s development learning, social and cultural awareness we should promote children in using technology instead of teachers controlling it. Te Whāriki says that toddlers need to explore their world with what they can have access to, it says books and pictures about their everyday world but technology is now becoming part of their world a lot faster as they understand it and know how to work it faster than adults can.
With this experience watching Jane with my phone, I believe
they need the ipads to be available to the toddlers to use with adult
supervision but they are so competent with technology and great at exploring
their world. Having technology more accessible for them
will benefit them for the world we are now living in.
References
References
Ministry
of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He
whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning
Media.
Stephen, C. & Plowman, L. (2013). Digital technologies, play, and learning. Early Childhood Folio, 17(2), 3-8.
It’s interesting to see how experienced young children are with working with technology and how you followed here interest’s and cues when Jane wanted to explore the photos and go into YouTube. You have explained the amount of broken technology and the fact that the under two area does not have access to the technology, maybe you could approach management with your belief on how technology can be beneficial for children’s learning and share the experience that you did with Jane and think about allowing more access to the younger children.
ReplyDeleteIt may be difficult with under twos but maybe to further their learning about phones or cameras, you could set up an activity and hand out other phones or cameras (if you have permission from your team leader or management) for children to explore and research a project. Prepare an activity and give technology to the children to do what they like. This could also support your idea of getting the children more involved in technology and learning how to use the device and how it can be integrated into their learning journey.
From the experience you have done with Jane, would you then go on to introduce your phone or another piece of technology to a group of other children? What was Jane’s reaction once the phone was taken away? In my experience I found that because the children have not had the experience with technology in my centre that they got distracted and did not want to experience the area further. Was there a continuous interest in technology and did she want to revisit the experience or was her experience shared with others?
Sharlene, I’m surprised around the idea that you were able to use your cell phone at your centre. At my centre we are not allowed cell phones on the floor because of ethical issues and it is stated in our contract. More importantly, by pulling out your phone and giving it to Jane you found out that she has digital literacy even at the age of two years old. I’m sure, you also now realised that she must be exposed to technology quite often at home. While reading through your blog entry, I grasped that through this experience you learned new things about Jane, built a better relationship with her and also learned the importance of the term "exchange of power" between teacher and child (Ministry of Education, 1996). What I meant when I said "exchange of power", you had to trust Jane enough to know that she would not ruin your cell phone. In addition, when you’re explaining about what Jane used on your phone, I would have used the entire word application instead of “app” only because your blog entry should be considered formal piece of writing. From this learning experience, Jane could link her technological experiences she is shown at home with the technological experiences you provided at the day care with your cell phone. Another essential point, I believe that children can only have an appreciation for something once they have adequate exposure with it and the same applies for technological items. After this experience with Jane, has it led you to believe that maybe toddlers are digitally literate and they are not given an opportunity to explore that in the centre. I would like to know, what did you learn about yourself as teacher through this experience with Jane? Would you advocate on the toddler’s behalf to have more physical exposure with the I-pads in your centre?
ReplyDelete