30 July 2012

Is it a Digital Camera, Ipod, or Camera Phone?  Introducing our Tamariki to this complex piece of digital technology.

The most common use of digital technology within my centre would be a digital camera, although the use of the camera is very rare, as my centre doesn’t actually own any. Because the documentation of children’s learning in the form of learning stories and portfolios occurs very rarely, on the odd occasion when a camera is required, the teachers provide their own.

To capture pictures of a creative activity, one of staff members grabbed his Ipod, and used the camera setting to take pictures, with the intention of emailing them to himself to print. As the children are familiar with ipods and camera phones from their home setting, they weren’t phased by this, asking to see the photos and then continuing with their work.

Once the photos were printed and shown to the children, the confusion began as they tried to understand how their photos managed to get from the ipod {‘the music pod’) to the pieces of paper in his hand. Having to pull his ipod out and show them the different functions (music, clock, camera, messaging) they began to develop a deeper understanding for a piece of technology that they see utilised in their everyday lives.

From this view point, I feel that this absolutely directly impacts on the learning and development of the children within my centre, as suddenly their thoughts, understandings and working theories have been challenged and extended, allowing us to introduce them to different ways that this piece of technology can be used to assist us with everything from waking up early, to calculating our shopping. Surprisingly, most of the children were either familiar with, or quickly grasped the idea of email, and easily understood how their pictures were able to transfer from his Ipod, to a laptop, and then to the printer. Could this be because of the normality of text messaging within our lives?

So how significant is this piece of technology within the lives of our children? And how will it aid in the development? Ministry of Education (1996) states that "...children use a variety of technologies for different purposes as they explore their world" (p. 98), and although the term technology can broaden and be inclusive of non-digital technology, I can't help but feel that we may be modelling and encouraging the younger generations to be reliant on technologies latest developments.

 According to Bewick, Thornton and Tsantis (2003), finding an appropriate balance while introducing computer technology into the curriculum is important in making the integration successful, as many educators have different approaches and ideas on computer technology with an early childhood setting. Within my particular setting however, our barrier to digital technology lies in lack of access to finances, meaning that much of our documentation is through drawings and stories, without the support of a photographs. In turn, this also effects the child's view of their learning progress, as they lack the visual of their personal progress that many children get from learning stories, portfolios and wall displays. Parents and whanau also miss out on the visual of their child's learning journey.
Lack of finances also means that we aren't able to expose the children within our setting to this sort of technology as often as we would like to allow them these consistent experiences.

 Although this particular experience had a positive outcome with these children, I don't necessarily feel that an Ipod has any direct place in an early childhood setting, and like most digital technology, exploration of these technologies should be done with hands-on guidance from adults (National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2008).




Reference List


Bewick, C., Thornton, S., Tsantis, L. (2003). Examining some common myths about computers in the early years. Young Children on the Web, November 2003, 1-9.
Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whariki: He whariki matauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media

National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2008). Meaningful technology integration in early learning environments. Young Children on the Web. September 2008, 1-3