Entry Four

Entry Four

At my home centre, we have several ICT resources that the children are able to use and enjoy without teacher’s supervision. We currently have an Apple TV, two iPads, Bluetooth speaker, and an Apple computer for all the children to use. In our centre, we limit the use of technology by giving children 10-15 minutes of quiet learning using the iPads, or 15- 20 minutes of singing, dancing and watching school programmes on TV. Throughout my teaching experience in the centre, I have observed the use of technologies in early childhood education and how technologies can play a significant role in children’s learning as they connect effectively to people, places, things and events.

One day I noticed child B playing on the iPad and he was very engaged in what he was doing. I sat next to him to have a closer look at what he was doing, I saw that he was focusing on connecting the dots to form the letter “M”. From this, he was very patient on connecting the lines even though he kept drawing over the dots and therefore loses the lines and have to start again. I observed him for few minutes and he saw that I was watching him. He asked for my help, but I did not want to intervene because he was halfway to connecting the last two lines for the letter “M”, so I encouraged him to keep his eyes on his index (pointer) finger and slowly follow the line by pressing down smoothly on the screen. He tried it again and he kept starting over and over. This time he took my advice by slowly following the lines and connecting the dots together and therefore he successfully form a capital letter “M”. I was very pleased to watch him complete this task without giving up. He excitedly showed me what he had done, then he went to the teachers and his friends to show them the iPad with his writing on it.  He was very proud of doing so as he had learnt a new skill. With technology “solving practical problems contributes to self-confidence and wellbeing” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p 94).

Following his interest in writing and drawing, I decided to expand on this by incorporating another aspect of technology, so I played a video of the alphabetical order on the Apple TV and encouraged child B to sing along to the ABC song, this will help him recognise the letters of the alphabetical order. His friends started joining in by dancing around and singing along to pronounce each letter of the alphabetical order.

During this experience, Child B had learnt the skill of hand-eye coordination by visually following the dots on the screen and actively participating in the activity. He was able to learn how to write the letters on the iPad and used it to engage with his friends and teachers. This learning experience enhances social interaction skills as children develop their language skills by using technology and such skills will then develop their understanding for the world around them (Ministry of Education, 2017).

References

Cook, T., & Hess, E. (2007). What the camera sees and from whose perspective: Fun methodologies for engaging children in enlightening adults. Childhood, 14(1), 29-45.

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

Ministry of Education (2017). Te Whāriki He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Mātauranga House.