Blog One: How technology promotes children’s learning
Date: 22nd August, 2012
Today one of the teachers at my centre brought in an overhead projector to our infant and toddler room. The children were very excited to see something new. Children at my centre have been interested in different kinds of shapes so I thought of placing different kinds of plastic shapes on the projector screen and teacher T also brought in a plain sheet to put up on the wall. We wanted the children to explore with technology and also learn their shapes at the same time.
When the sheet was up children started
taking turns to put the shapes on the projector screen and they could see the
shadows on the screen. Some of them were putting their hands on the projector
screens to see the shadow of their hands.
Today I noticed that when child K
arrived in the morning he straight away came to see the overhead projector.
Normally K arrives in the morning he does not settle in strait away. It takes
quite a while for K to settle in his environment every morning but today he was
absolutely fine because he saw something new and he was really fascinated by
the overhead projector. He quickly said bye to his mum and started exploring
with the overhead projector.
Child K looked at the different shadow
of the shapes and he was really fascinated by them. He tried moving the shape
around to see what the outcome will be on the plain sheet placed on the wall
and he was really interested about how the projector worked. Child T was
holding a toy car so he game child K his toy car and he placed it on the
projector screen. After quite a while of picking things and placing it back on
the projector table he started looking all around the projector table and he
found the light switch so he started switching on the light and turning it off
and was fascinated by the light going on and off. He looked at the plain sheet every
time he switched the light off. One of the teachers stopped him because other
children wanted to explore with the projector as well.
Other children started taking their
turns and most of them were moving the shapes around on the projector screen to
see the outcome of it. After a while, all the children went away to play with
something else but child K was still fascinated by the overhead projector. He
got pieces of puzzles, shells and even pieces of paper to place them on the
projector screen.
Child K was not just placing the
different kinds of materials on the projector screen, he was very curious about
how the overhead projector worked. I could see that child K was problem solving
by placing different materials on the projector screen. He was investigating
the light switch and he was also making connection between placing the objects
on the screen then switching the light on and off and then watching it on the
plain sheet on the wall. His curiosity was leading him to enquire and make
sense of the world around him (Ministry of Education, 1996).
From this experience, child K realised
that technology can support so much of children’s learning. Child K was using
the overhead projector for the first time so he was using the concept of trial
and error to investigate. He was not only learning about light and shadow from
this technology but he was learning other concepts such as problem solving,
thinking and reasoning which will help him in other curriculum areas. Now I see
technology in the light of other curriculum areas such as mathematics or pre
reading skills which can be enhanced in early childhood centres through
learning experiences (Smorti, 1999). Technology would not just support the
child in one curriculum area but rather support the child in a holistic way
enhancing in other curriculum areas.
Reference List:
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.
Kiora Monish!
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a great, amazing, fun experience for you, staff and this lovely age group. I can’t just images little ones, once their expose or introduce to a new thing will get them very excited. Your team technique of introducing this head-projector to this age group was great. I think in presenting this new product you made it less stressful for this age group by using things that they are familiar with at the same times (shapes). It is especially with infant and toddlers their are little movers, explorer so it was great to let them explore the classroom so that way they will learn to develop their own unique view on their surrounding. Well-done! Monisha and your staff for encouraging infant and toddlers to have a go at this new technology. This really helps them gains confidents and is more likely to try new things in the future.
I like that you have talked about a piece of technology that we grew up with in Primary its good to see that its still useful now. I also enjoyed reading the part where children are exploring the many things you could do with it, its something that can remind us to keep in the centre, it also provides children with alot of learning opportunities that children discover themselevs. Good work Monisha I like that you have identified the learning cuuriculums that the children develop in this piece of technology.
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ReplyDeleteKapai Monisha, I love your reflection because it's a different technology which children hardly have the opportunity to experience it. Its good to see how you introduce different kinds of technology to the children, to extend their learning. I can also see that children were excited and were settle with the new technology. The children were able to see shapes and other objects in a different way, which I agree with you that technology supports children's learning in a holistically way. Kapai.
WOW Monisha an overhead projector? I honestly enjoyed reading this because it was interesting to read that this settled a child who was usually unsettled. This goes to show that introducing new things into the centre will be fascinating to children, in this case it was this child who noticed the overhead projector and enjoyed it because of the different shapes he could move around and also to explore this himself. I am also fascinated that child K spent a long time with the projector and also being creative with placing different objects on the projector, trial and error I personally think he was doing, placing different objects to see if it would reflect onto the other side. Also within this reflection I noticed that you noticed that this child was investigating and you let him explore on his own, letting him turn the switch on and off which I personally think is a good experience for the child. Thank you Monisha this was very interesting to read. Ka pai...
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