Today I brought in my flip camera and asked
the children if they wanted to make a News Time that we could play on the flat
screen TV at mat time. I got many
volunteers and we decided the fair way to do it would be for me to record the
first one and then each person that had been interviewed could become the
camera person with me helping them. I
got many different perspectives of news as we went around and quite a lot of
interest in visiting family on planes.
Maybe a new project in the making but best I get back to this reflection. This was all going well until my camera ran
out of batteries. This is an important consideration with technology and I need to remember to be a little more organised.
So I agreed with the children that we would
carry on when I came back to kindergarten on Thursday. When I arrived back I straight away had children asking if I'd brought in my movie camera, which I explained that I did. Now that the camera was charged I was able to download the images. I explained that I was
attaching my camera into the computer “so
that they could talk to each other”. I
remember the presenter from NetSafe had said "good to role model our own
learning journey in technology for children" and this is also a valid teaching strategy
(MacNaughton and Williams, 2009). This was going really slow and A stated “I can’t hear any talking going on”. Which really made me laugh, as I was
getting frustrated myself at the amount of time it was taking. I explained that the camera was sending messages
that we could not hear and the computer understood these messages and making
the movie move onto the computer.
While we were waiting I noticed that a mum was trying to say goodbye to her daughter but she was crying and really didn’t want her to leave. Thinking on the spot I asked if R wanted to give any news for mat-time and we could record it on the camera. I showed her some of the news we had caught on Tuesday. R agreed as long as mum was in it too. Mum had time and so that is exactly what we did. M was the camera person and without any prompting R sat with her mum and as they cuddled they talked to the camera about rainbow flowers. I've noticed that R loves anything to do with rainbows. R was intrigued how she would get to talk on the TV as she joined the group of five that was around the laptop. She easily said goodbye to mum and was comfortable and relaxed as mum left. I showed the children MovieMaker and we decided where we were going to place each child and we laughed as we made different effects between children on the screen.
While we were waiting I noticed that a mum was trying to say goodbye to her daughter but she was crying and really didn’t want her to leave. Thinking on the spot I asked if R wanted to give any news for mat-time and we could record it on the camera. I showed her some of the news we had caught on Tuesday. R agreed as long as mum was in it too. Mum had time and so that is exactly what we did. M was the camera person and without any prompting R sat with her mum and as they cuddled they talked to the camera about rainbow flowers. I've noticed that R loves anything to do with rainbows. R was intrigued how she would get to talk on the TV as she joined the group of five that was around the laptop. She easily said goodbye to mum and was comfortable and relaxed as mum left. I showed the children MovieMaker and we decided where we were going to place each child and we laughed as we made different effects between children on the screen.
All
I can say was to watch the expressions on the children’s faces was priceless I
wasn’t expecting to feel quite as emotional as they beamed at me as their
images came up and R was the best, there she was with her mum. I never imaged that I could use this as a
support for transition into the centre. Through this experience R was able to have a “feeling of
belonging, and having a right to belong, in the early childhood setting”
(Ministry of Education, p58) and for me a very new understanding of the benefit
of transition with the help of technology.
Going back to some of my
first thoughts; I can see the benefit of technology I am still of the opinion
that there needs to be a balance but I think this particular reflection has
been very powerful to me about how technology can help a child feel safe, have
a place and be valued as a member of the community.
From this my head teacher was impressed how the children had responded to seeing themselves taking news time. She has agreed that I can trial a private blog with a couple of the children that I have observed have a keen interest in technology. We've talked about getting consent forms and who knows if it's successful we might have a kindergarten blog.
From this my head teacher was impressed how the children had responded to seeing themselves taking news time. She has agreed that I can trial a private blog with a couple of the children that I have observed have a keen interest in technology. We've talked about getting consent forms and who knows if it's successful we might have a kindergarten blog.
Hertzog, N., & Klein, M.
(2005). Beyond Gaming a technology explosion in early childhood classrooms. Gifted
Child Today, 28(3), 24-65.
MacNaughton,
G., & Williams, G. (2009). Techniques
for teaching young children: Choices in theory and practice (3rd ed.). Frenchs
Forrest, Australia: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Ministry of Education.
(1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga
mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa : Early
childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.
Talay-Ongan, A.,
& Ap, E. A. (Eds.). (2005). Child
development and teaching young children. Southbank, Australia: Thomson
Social Science Press
Tsantis, L. A.,
Bewick, C. J., & Thouvenelle, S. (2003). Examining some common myths about
computer use in the early years. Young
Children, 58(1), 1-9.
Wang,
H. (2008) Exploring educational use of blogs in U.S education. US-China
Educational Review,5 (10) 34-38.
Yang, s. H. (2009)
Using blogs to enhance critical reflections and community of practice. Educational
Technology & Society, 12 (2), 11.21.
All movie and images from YouTube and Google image.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDonna, what an awesome final blog! Its so awesome to see you really experimenting with technology and stepping out of your comfort zone, its a real inspiration to read your blogs as you are putting your ideas into action! What a great idea to record children doing there news, I may need to use this activity idea in my centre as I know that news time is a favourite part of the children's day within my centre. How awesome that you were able to settle a little girl who was feeling distressed and record her and her mum together, your vision of including family and Whanau with the children's daily experiences really was a success in this instance, this creates a feeling of 'Mana Whenua' or belonging for both children and their families (Ministry of Education, 1996). You must be really proud of yourself for putting steps in place to potentially have a blog in your centre, I think its a great idea for centres to set up their own blog and be able to connect with Whanau in other parts of New Zealand and all around the world. Go Donna, Awesome stuff!
ReplyDeleteReferences:
Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki, he whaariki mātauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa : Early childhood curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media.
Donna thank you for your last blog the idea was quite innovative and entirely foreign to me, and as you identified a similar experience for the children. Ministry of Education highlights that the outcome of curriculum i.e.: the flip camera, is knowledge and new skills with attitudes fostered alongside, furthermore benefiting the child’s working theories that encourage learning now and in the future (Ministry of Education, 2007).Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 1996) identifies relationships as essential to assessment and that families should be part of this. Had you thought about how that through this experience you have brought the centre, children, families and wider internet community together? This is as Freidman (2005) suggests, social studies meaning 'Society' is woven throughout our curriculum. This too is identified in the New Zealand School Curriculum,(2007) that children learn as they interact in shared activities and conversations with others, inclusive of the wider community, family and teachers. Did you realise your facilitation provided specific knowledge you wanted a child to know (Mac Naughton & Williams, 2009), in this case you kept the children and yourself up with technology development that is consistently evolving .Thank you for sharing your technological knowledge, I too have learn't new skills and knowledge and appreciate your reflections and contribution to my journey as a life long learner (Ministry of Education, 1996).Maybe this experience could prompt the children to create and film their own story they might like to tell to their families, this could be presented to the families alongside the teachers and children with special guest stars red carpet and all the works? what a very special movie premiere this could be.
ReplyDeleteHi Donna,
ReplyDeleteWow what an experience you almost brought a tear to my eye when I read the children's expressions where priceless. What an awesome opportunity to spend great time with your children.
I loved that you have involved the parent with the upset child. Such a fantastic opportunity to help to settle a child into the day with the help of a camera and the support of her family and teachers. As citied in Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett and Farmer (2008) Froman, Hall and Berglund (2001) state that "Ordinary moments are the pages in the child's diary for the day. If we could resist our temptation to record only the grand moments, we might find the authentic child living in the in-between. If we could resist the temptation to put the children on a stage, we might find the real work being done in the wings. If we understood the great value in the ordinary moments, we might be less inclined to have a marvellous finale for a long-term project. We appeal to educators everywhere to find the marvel in the mundane, to find the power of the ordinary moment (p.379).
Great Blog Donna I really enjoyed reading this and have really enjoyed learning a lot about you and the children in your centre.
Thank you so much for sharing all these stories with all of us.
Wow Donna, once again you have blown me out of the water with a heart filled insightful blog about your own learning journey with technology. The first thing that jumped out to me was your willingness to facilitate this activity within the centre even though as you identified, it was out of your comfort zone, I feel this is so important because this maybe a new and foreign world of technology to us but this generation of children are growing up in a world shaped by technology (Smorti, 1999) and will know no other reality. I thought It was really funny that you ran out of batteries as this is a very real problem and happens to me on a weekly basis, however it challenged my own attitudes around blaming my batteries every week or embracing the technology and accepting that changing my batteries on a daily basis is part of using this piece of technology and is my responsibility. I loved your use of technology as a settling tool and believed it promoted a sense of belonging for both the children in the transition and the others involved as it facilitated an opportunity “to play an active part in the running of the programme” and the opportunity to “express their ideas and to assist others” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.58). You have really inspired me to step out of my own comfort zone and facilitate an activity similar to this as I know the children in my centre would love it!
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