In today's society mobile phones are very much a part of our everyday life. The infants and toddlers are watching their siblings ,parents/whanau and even their teachers using them at home and at work everyday. Even within our centre we have a mobile phone on the wall for texting and calling parents when needed.
Today I watched as M who is twenty months old playing in the family corner. She looked through the box and got herself a large brown handbag out and placed it over her shoulder. As I continued to watch M was on a mission looking for something else. Under boxes, in cupboards, maybe in the oven, she was looking for something. Then she saw them on the bottom shelf, two mobile phones. These were picked up and placed in her handbag. She then picked up the car keys placed these also in her bag and walked off to the other side of the centre. M sat down and opened her handbag, she took out a mobile phone. It was a flip phone and she opened it and put it to her ear and started to talk. When the call was finished M shut her phone and placed it back in her bag. She then continued moving around the centre with her bag over her shoulder.
M is beginning her journey into today's ITC world. All children need to be given opportunities to explore today's technology. It is important as teachers that we ourselves are aware of the "the technological world that we live in: a world that people have created and changed through technology." (Smorti, 1999, p.1) M is role playing what she has seen as a part of her everyday life. M is starting to "develop an understanding of how technology works."(Ministry of Education, 1996, p.85).Through providing access to technological resources and creating opportunities for the children to use them the technology will become more familiar to them .The children will become more capable and confident in their ITC skills. Technology makes our lives easier, young children today need to be aware of and keep pace with today's world. As do the teachers through ongoing professional development in the area of ITC."As educators we need to understand how modern technologies can help us better meet the social, physical and learning needs of the young children." (Tsantis, Bewick, Thourenelle, 2003, p.8)
It must be very interesting to watch M talking on the mobile phone herself. Teachers can help children explore technology by bringing in more old mobile phones for them to play with. M can be encouraged to ring another child on the mobile. Pretending to talk on mobiles helps children's language development in a natural way. They can exchange ideas and experiences; stimulate and scaffold one another. They will even borrow, practise and adopt adult words to fit a situation. Teachers can also participate in the play and talk with children through the mobile.
ReplyDeleteKia Ora Catherine, I agree with you totally that technology has become part of our children's everyday life. It is so important for teachers to realise this and be part of ongoing professional development in this curricullum area. Only when teachers are confident and capable in using technology can we provide meaningful learning opportunities for children. Technology is benefitial to children in so many ways such as supporting literacy, social interaction and language development. We are also preparing children for elementary learning as in most primary schools nowadays there are computers, laptops, interactive whiteboards etc. Children as little as one and half years old are showing an interest in technology as you have shared, which confirms the need for ongoing professional development to continue to update our knowledge and skills. Keep up the good work, Catherine.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like M is mimicking things she has seen outside of the centre, which shows us just how impressionable young children are. I think it is great when young children are introduced to technology because it is such an important part of our world now and it is becoming almost as important to learn how to use a computer as it is to leartn to write with a pen. One thing that you could have mentioned in your entry is possibly the safety measures that we need to take with young children using technology for example if M was to get hold of a real cellphone and ring random numbers. She wouldn't know who was on the other end of the phone and it could lead to trouble. But I thought it was a really cool entry and the children at your centre are lucky to have access to so much new technology. :)
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff, I have just finished reading a research article by Margaret Brennan about cultural tools. She talks abour how important it is for teachers to be aware of this generations' technical cultural tools so that we can engage with them in meaningful learning experiences.
ReplyDeleteTino pa to mahi.
hey catherine!
ReplyDeleteI found it so interesting reading your entry, because in my centre it is the same! mobile phones are VERY popular! and often the children have fights over them..."steph he has 3 phones when i only have 2!!!" lol.
I think it is amazing how the children know so much about modern technology from watching people around them. I find it really amazing because they know exactly how to use the phones too, they can call people, take photos and text!!
great story :)
It is very interesting to see a 20 months old toddler engaged with a mobile phone. You can see ICT technology is now acting an important role for ece contexts (both for learning and teaching)
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