This blog has been a journey for me. For starters, it is my first blog. I have experienced the frustrations that come with a new skill that I needed to get my head around and technology that did not work. I have also experienced the satisfaction of seeing the blog come in fruition. I marvel at how the use of the technology of a blog has helped us as a group to communicate, critically analyze and share ideas (Wang, 2008). This tool has been used in our journey to encourage and provoke each other in order to strengthen our beliefs and reflect on the significance of technology in the lives of young children.
Throughout this journey, I have grown in my understanding of what technology is and how significant it is for young children to be exposed to technology. On reflecting on technology, I have come to see that children do indeed engage with technology all the time. We are surrounded by technology, both digital and non-digital. We use technology for the use it was intended for and in order to solve new problems and therefore engage in a technological process (Smorti, 1999). The New Zealand early childhood curriculum “Te Whāriki’ (Ministry of Education, 1996) says that “children use a variety of technologies for different purposes as they explore the world” (Ministry of Education, 1996). When children engage in the exploration of technology they are discovering more about how their world works (Smorti, 1999).
Through blogging I have glimpsed more of an insight into each of my group member’s thoughts on technology. We each had valuable contributions to make, as we garbled with ideas and marveled at children’s use of technology. It was interesting to read feedback on my own work, which has provoked me to think deeper into the world of technology and how to use it in my practice. Likewise I found it fascinating to read my other group members posts and their thoughts and journeys into using technology with children. Together we covered a variety of different items of non-digital technology as well as different angles of the same pieces of digital technology. As I commented on each post, I tried to critically analyze what was written. By thinking deeply, I feel that this really contributed to my own learning and hopefully also to the author of the blog.
All of my posts received positive comments from my entire group, with a few points to ponder. My first post, “Constructing a path” received a thought provoking comment from Kate’s who responded to my comment of technology being created to improve their own lives, with a mention of nuclear weapons. In reflecting on this comment I still believe what I said is true. The creators of the weapons were indeed creating them for a purpose; a destructive purpose. I agree with Kate that we need to be guiding children to solve problems that will benefit society. I think that having an emphasis on social competence in the early childhood setting, and fostering empathy and morals in children will help guide children to want to benefit society through the development of technology.
In “Children using cameras” I thought that Nicola’s suggestion of discussing the use of cameras at mat time and with small groups of children was a great idea, which I can definitely use. I also liked Kate’s idea of the Nokia phone camera’s which the children would enjoy and would indeed be able to explore another function of the mobile phone. However I would also want to balance this with real digital cameras, so that the children can print out copies of their work.
Ethics was a common topic in other blogs and one that I did not reflect upon in my posts, but reflected upon as I read other posts and commented on them. Ragina mentioned in my “using technology to gain knowledge” post that she thought it was important to teach children about the ethics involved with computers. Safety on the computer is really important. Honesty it is an area that I a bit ignorant about. I did enjoy being informed when we had a speaker from "Netsafe" come and talk to us about safety on the internet. I was particular interested in “Hector’s world”. In implementing this program I see the benefits of teaching children in a fun way about being safe on the internet.
I noticed throughout each of our blogs that social interaction was a common theme. It appears that our group all believes that technology brings people together. It is an interesting observation because as Tsantis, Newick , and Kowenelle (2003) state that a common myth is that computers do not support pro-social interactions. However my journey in this blog project has highlighted to me, that technology is indeed a communicative and social way to connect people together. Through shared interests children and adults interact to explore new ideas and develop knowledge together (Sharp, 2004).
References
Google images. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.verussolutions.biz/web/content/latest-technology
Google images. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://vixstar1314.wordpress.com/2011/06/06/technology-a-gift-or-a-curse/
Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki, he whārriki mātauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.
Sharp, C. (2004). Developing young children's creativity: what can we learn from research. TOPIC, 32, 5–12.
Smorti, S. (1999) Technology in Early Childhood. Early Education, 19, 5-10.
Tsantis, L., Bewick, C., & Thornton, S. (2003). Examining some common myths about computers in the early years. Young Children on the Web, November 2003, 1-9.
Wang, H. (2008). Exploring the educational use of blogs in U.S. education. US – China Education Review, 5 (10), 34-37.
