Technology and Me :)

First of all I like to thank everyone in my group for the positive feedback and the positive suggestions. I like all your feedback and some threw questions my way and suggestions which made me stepped back and reflect on my activity with the children. Thank you Rachel for the suggestions because it was relevant for children's learning and it provided an interesting activity for the children, not only that but your suggestions extended the children's learning. Your feedback meant a lot to me because we were able to help support one another through technology as for some of us we find technology scary but when we contribute to each others blog it helps put our mind at ease.

This group project brought us together where we worked collaboratively and respected each others work. It was really important for us to provide a rich environment for the children's learning; I love this group project because children got to experience and learn how olden day’s resources and modern day’s resources worked. These experiments with technology allow the children to compare, and experiment to what make sense to the world around them. Children were able to get a sense of their grandparents’ days, which it can be something for the children to share with their grandparents.  I believe this will be a memorable moment for the children as they share with their grandparents, children will also carry this special moment with them forever.

The New Zealand Curriculum states exposing children to technological activities helps children to develop a broad technological literacy that will equip them to participate in society as informed citizens and give them access to technology related careers. They learn practical skills as they develop models, products, and systems. They also learn about technology as a field of human activity, experiencing and/or exploring historical and contemporary examples of technology from a variety of contexts. Technology is associated with the transformation of energy, information, and materials. Technological areas include structural, control, food, and information and communications technology and biotechnology. Relevant contexts can be as varied as computer game software, food products, worm farming, security systems, costumes and stage props, signage, and taonga (Ministry of Education, 2007, p. 34).

Participating in this blog about technology has opened my eyes to a lot of different kind of technologies. Learning about technology I told myself "oh it’s about computers, camera and resources that relates to electricity but I was wrong". I have learnt that technology is much more than just electricity, it is about making things in a process and it’s about seeing the process of your work and comparing. Ministry of Education (2996) states "technology using many materials for different purposes enables children to recognize that different technologies may be used in various places and settings (p.95). Blogging is a good way for teacher's to reflect on their practices and the children's learning. Yang (2009) states "blogging motivates learning and blogging also helps community building. Technology keeps us connected with our families overseas. Technology is a very useful tool for busy parents and teachers, because they can share learning stories online and email each other regarding the child's learning. For example Glass & Ellis (2009) states “technology enable children, parents and staff to share daily events, milestones and activities. This has proved to be highly effective in promoting oracy and literacy. Emailing learning stories from school to parents has promoted a reciprocal process where parents are now emailing stories from home to kindergarten accompanied by digital photos” (para.5). Due to booming growth of technology blogs have become another learning platform for language teaching (Yang, 2009, p.13).

Reference:

Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand:  Learning Media

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki, He whāriki Mātauranga mo ngā Mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media

Bronwyn Glass & Raelene Ellis - Botany Downs Kindergarten: Retrieved 30/03/2012 from http://www.ptengland.school.nz/index.php?mid=15,420,10656,11026-

Yang, S.-H. (2009). Using Blogs to Enhance Critical Reflection and Community of Practice. Educational Technology & Society, 12 (2), 11-12. Department of Applied Foreign Languages, National Formosa University, Yunlin, Taiwan