Personally,
I felt that doing a blog with my peers was a fantastic idea it supported my
understanding of “Technology” digital and non-digital. Sometimes we as teachers need that support
and feedback to help us with ideas or strategies that work and encourage us to
be even better teachers for the children.
I
feel that when we work in collaboration with the children this is a positive way
of supporting their understanding in technology; this also helps us as
Educators to extend what we don’t know therefore, sharing knowledge with the
children and learning together. Teaching
Techniques suggest that “as a teaching strategy, co-construction refers to
staff and children forming meaning and building knowledge about the world with
each other” (2009, pg. 228).
I
enjoyed reading all the blogs from my colleagues and the different interactions
that were happening with the children. I
believe that we as Educators need to place children in an environment that is
rich and encourages interaction, participation and enhances their learning
development in all areas of the Early Childhood setting. The New Zealand Curriculum states that “students
develop knowledge particular to technological enterprises and environments and
understandings of how and why things work” (Ministry of Education, 2007, pg.
32).
The
feedback that I got from my peers was constructive and encouraging it made me
realise how important it is to reflect on one’s teaching methods. An example of this would be when Rachael
mentioned about how I only had girls participating in my activity instead of
the boy’s. This feedback made me re-look
at how the activity went and I started to question myself as to why the boy’s
didn’t participate, and how can I encourage the boy’s to participate next time
which Rachael gave a fantastic idea and recommend making a car out of a box and
encouraging the boys to come and paint it.
I
also enjoyed Caroline’s feedback as well regarding my Smart Board blog,
Caroline asked if using technology would make the children lazy. As I started to reflect on this it made me
think of when I was young and how most of my learning was done through
non-digital, therefore, this became a preference for me as oppose to opting for
technology. I feel that children need to
have those hands on experience where they are able to show their peers how to
do things when interacting.
I
noticed that the children’s development in technology digital and non-digital
has been productive, in some of the blogs children using computers were
learning about literacy, numbers, and camera’s and digital photo frames supported
children with memory recall, taking ownership of their work. Non-digital technology such as cooking
developed measuring skills, using buckets also enhanced this skill as well, painting
supported sensory with different size paint brushes. Instruments that were used in the past are
now recorded on CD to be played on a CD player; children were able to learn
about non-digital and digital technology bringing the past to the future.
Lastly,
this assessment has not only made me look at the children’s learning and
development but also my own. I have
learnt so many wonderful lessons about exploring technology digital and
non-digital, blogging has provided a pathway of technology for this to be
possible. As a savvy Early Childhood
Educator in the year 2012 I hope to provide opportunities of learning that are
creative, imaginative and encourage curiosity about “Technology” (Smorti, 1999,
pg. 5).
Ministry of Education. (2007). The
New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington, New
Zealand: Learning Media
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.
McNaughton,
G., & Williams, G. (2009). Techniques
for teaching young children: Choices in theory and practice (3rd ed.). Melbourne,Vic.:
Addison Wesley Longman.
