When I arrived at my centre the other day, I
saw that one of the educators had set up a table with some keyboards and paper
for the children. I noticed one of the children, N, pushing lots of the buttons
and pretending to write things down onto the paper. I went over to her and sat
with her for awhile to see what she was doing. She would say “M is for mummy
and I is for I***” as she pushed the corresponding letters on the keyboard. As
she has only just turned three I found this very interesting. She is able to not
only recognise many of the letters on a keyboard, but also to link them back to
a person she knows. Hamer and Adams (2003) write that through “the provision of
a literacy-enriched environment that provides ample literacy resources,
interactions and opportunities, children learn to become literate” (p. 52). This
actually assisted me in realising that including the use of keyboards as part
of an experience is very useful for learning early literacy skills.
After a while, N, started involving me in
her play, so I asked her what other things she could use a keyboard for. She
answered with “emails”. This shows me that she is developing an understanding
of the use of a keyboard in a technological way as well. When children use
computers or keyboards they are also learning another way to communicate with
other people. This links back to the communication strand of the New Zealand
curriculum (Ministry of Education, 1996). I wonder if N uses a keyboard at home
as she seemed to play with it with such ease. Most families these days will
have a computer at home, or access to one, which means that the children are probably
being exposed to keyboards and computer mice away from the centre as well.
Technology is always changing and reflects
the needs of the society we live in (Ministry of Education, 2007). Once upon a
time, people wrote letters to each other to communicate, then they had
telephones, which made it much easier to reach someone. Then in the recent
past, email was created, which meant that as long as the person you were trying
to reach had internet and an email address, it was easier again to contact
people. According to Smorti (1999), the definition of technology is “helping
people and solving problems” (p. 1). Email was invented to solve the problem of
communicating over long distances. Keyboards are an important tool when it
comes to emailing and I believe that as long as we have computers we will also
have keyboards and providing access to these for children in centres gives them
the opportunity to learn how to use them as well.
I have recently had a discussion with my
parents about technology and the advances that are being made. My stepfather,
J, has always been someone that struggles with digital technology, whereas I
have had access to computers, emails and cell-phones since I was of the age to
appreciate what they meant in terms of communication and access to information.
I think that as I was raised with digital technology as a large part of my
life, it gives me a better understanding and appreciation of it. I will need to
work hard to keep up-to-date with the current advances, as the changes in
technology happen so fast now, but this semester has helped me to feel excited
about these changes and what they mean for the future.
Reference
List.
Hamer, J., &
Adams, P. (2003). The New Zealand early
childhood literacy handbook. New Zealand: Dunmore.
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. (2007). The
New Zealand curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.
Smorti, S. (1999). Technology in early
childhood. Early education, 58 (1),
1-9.
Emily I enjoyed reading your blog about the keyboards and how a simple keyboard can be so beneficial to a child's play and learning. After reading this I wondered if your children at your centre have access to computers well they are there.If you do then this could further the learning for that child or other children in your centre.As teachers we need to support children in digital technology and keep integrating technology into our early childhood settings (colbert, 2012) If your centre doesn't have computers or let children have access to them maybe this could be something to think about or bring up with the teachers in your centre.The preschool that I am at, has a keyboard which is in the family corner.The children use it with pretend money, paper and pens. I have seen them playing shops, offices, banks.Maybe for something different you could put it in the family corner and it could lead to different types of dramatic play.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this blog especially because I have done the same topic for my blog but I really like how we have talked about different things. I liked hearing about your expierence with that child knowing which corresponding letters to push on the keyboard I find it special when you get to listen to expierence like this. It was also lovely that you got to be involved in this childs play so that you could have a meaning conversation with her that you could both learn something from this conversation was helping meet the social needs of the child (Tsantis, Bewick, & Thornton, 2003 )I agree with your statement of how technology is changing and centre environment in regards is a lot different from when I was in daycare. Are you planning on re visiting this activity with the keyboards or taking a different approach with this Childs literacy skill?
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this blog and how the keyboards are put to good use. It is a great way for children to extend their learning with recognising letters. I like the way that the activity was set up and was just wandering what the paper was for? Was it for writing letters? Maybe you could incorporate this in this experience if you re visit it. Technology is changing fast and I agree with you that it is good to keep up to date with the changes so you can work along side children. If we want to scaffold children’s learning through technology then we need to “broaden our understanding of technology and continue to extend our own knowledge and skill base” (Smorti, 1999, p. 5). I was also thinking the same as what Kirstie was about using the computers to extend their learning. That would be a great opportunity for them to see the letters come up on the screen as they type them.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a great idea to use these old keyboards as you can see how beneficial it was for the children. I wouldn’t have thought to have the paper and pens on the table alongside the keyboards to extend on this but it was excellent to see where it took the children’s imagination. I thought it was interesting that the children were able to understand that the letters they could see on the keyboard were then connected to things in their own lives. This links to the belonging strand in Te Whariki where children experience an environment where connecting links with their families and world are affirmed (Ministry of Education, 1996). The use of technology such as these keyboards is a great way to introduce the idea of computers to children who haven’t had a chance to use one and take them into the future as the use of computers in school is growing rapidly. Tsantis, Bewick,& Thornton (2003) suggests that teachers need to understand how modern technologies can help meet the learning needs of young children and this activity does just that.I also thought that this could be extended on by the children using a computer to type something or even research something of interest to them.
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