Unfortunately, I don't have any experience working in Early Childhood Education but after reading this weeks articles I found a lot of useful information. The first article, Technology and Early Childhood Education: A Technology
Integration Professional Development Model for Practicing
Teachers, touched a lot on how teachers can incorporate technology. It is very true that the world is changing and students are introduced to technology sooner than before. Even at the Elementary level I have to remind myself that students have had years working with technology. I often find myself using very little technology in the classroom. Typically, I use the Smart Board for lessons and that is it. When thinking about that, I am keeping my kids without technology for most of the day. Most of my students have a phone or an iPod. Taking these technologies away from the students for the whole day is very difficult. When looking at technology with younger students it is important to find a good balance in the use of technology. During my time working in a first grade class the students were using iPads on a daily basis. They could read on them and play different type of math games on them. I completely agree with the article when it discussed the amount of technology all depends on the teacher. Being a long term substitute I am usually stuck using the technologies that the regular teacher is using. However, having my own classroom I can not wait to find a way to incorporate technology in all of the daily activities.
The second website Earlychildhood NEWS had a variety of links that were very useful. One blog I found very interesting was information on Activities for Indoor and Outdoor play, At the Early Childhood Education level play is a huge part of students growth and development. A teacher is able to gain great insight into your students. This blogger had a lot of information on both indoor and outdoor play. She also went in depth about the learning outcomes for the activities. It was great to get the backing as to why these activities are good for younger children. I was most interested to read about the bean bag activities and all of the benefits they have for children. Also, from the website I was able to get a better understanding of making sure the programs are ready for the students. When looking at UDL it would be important to make sure the programs and uploaded and easily accessible. It should be as easy as hitting a button for the student to gain access. A lot of time can be taken up trying to get students on to a program. Having them already up and ready to go will take away a lot of the wait time. We all know that wait time is the perfect time for students to get into trouble so it is important to minimize that.
You are right, play is so important to early childhood development! As an early childhood teacher I have found myself on multiple occasions having to defend myself to parents or strangers that think all that we do in an early childhood classroom is fingerpaint and play with blocks. In fact I even send home a letter at the beginning of the year explaining why what we do is not simply "playing" it is LEARNING! Fingerpainting, helps with fine motor and sensory development and is a stepping stone towards writing. Playing with blocks helps students with spatial awareness and geometry, and mathematical reasoning, story time helps to build a love and appreciation of the written word, and dress up allows for students to practice social interactions and try on new roles in unique scenarios. Exploration of toys and centers is a critical part in the way that I run my classroom and allows my students to practice time management, choice making, and responsibility when it comes time to clean up. Every activity we do goes so far beyond simply "playing" I am preparing my students to be life long learners!
ReplyDeleteIt was nice reading your post and realizing that I too, do not use enough technology! I am fortunate enough to have an overwhelming amount of technology in my classroom, but it still doesn't get used on a daily basis. We joke in my department that our smartboards have turned into a glorified projector:)
ReplyDeleteI think the biggest thing to realize is how comfortable the students are with technology. It as turned into them teaching me things. I have even given them incentives to find out shortcuts that I didn't know about the graphing calculators. Technology can put any child, regardless of their age, in control of their learning and I think that is really important. It also allows us to differentiate and let the students go at their own pace. I think one thing that I have found is that at times I find technology really distracting so that is why I don't implement it into lessons. But what is distracting to me, is totally normal for the students since they have been brought up with learning how to deal with distractions.