Focusing on the significance of using
technology in early childhood education has enabled me to become more aware of
how important technology really is in children’s lives. Throughout the whole blog
experience, the one thing that was evident through other student’s feedbacks
was that technology is increasingly becoming a crucial part of most centres in
today’s society (Smorti, 1999). The feedbacks that I received on my blogs
strengthen my beliefs that technology is certainly a tool for children’s learning
and development. This is also supported by Smorti (1999, p. 5), as he stated
that ‘technology is about helping people and solving problems’, it is also a ‘creative
and purposeful activity aimed at meeting needs and opportunities through the
development of products, systems or environment’. For me, this means that anything that we use
that helps and supports children’s learning and development can be defined as
technology. Technology can also be non-digital such as painting, art, hammers,
bricks, ice-block sticks or grass (Smorti, 1999).
Through the feedback that I
received from my peers, I also noticed that we all had similar values and
beliefs about the use of technology in our practice. All of us had recognised
the learning and development that occurs for children as a result of using
technology in ECE such as; “information sharing, language development, decision
making”, promoting social interactions and providing the medium to ‘creatively
collaborate with their peers’ (Tsantis, Bewick & Thornton, 2003, p.7). Other benefits of using technology are ‘improved
motor skills, enhanced mathematical thinking, increased creativity’ as well as
higher critical thinking and problem solving skills (Haugland, 2000, p. 2).
In my opinion, one of the main benefits
of using technology is that children develop the ability to cope with change (Ministry of Education, 1996). According
to Te Whāriki, New Zealand has become a part of a world revolution
regarding technology. Therefore incorporating technology in our centres is
helping children cope with changes that are occurring around them. To cope with
‘such changes, children need both the confidence to develop their own
perspectives and the capacity to continue acquiring new knowledge and skills’ (Ministry
of Education, 1996, p. 18). For this reason, technology needs to be an
essential part of our curriculum, in order for children to be able to utilize
and use technology on a daily basis.
Overall,
I have learnt that the use of technology in early childhood centres is an
integral part of children’s learning and development (Ministry of Education,
2007). Early childhood educators who use technology appropriately can use it to
enhance the teaching and learning process of children (Tsantis, Bewick & Thouvenelle,
2003). Using it appropriately would involve providing the correct support via
teaching techniques and strategies. It also means providing educational games,
as well as programmes to search for interests and topics that may arise.
However teachers need to supervise and help the children to do this. In saying
this, teachers also need to give children enough time and space to be able to
experiment and explore using the computer and other relevant technology on
their own (Haugland, 2000). This increases
children’s independence and provides ‘a growing sense of self-identity and of
self as learner’ (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 21).
As I mentioned in one of my blog; ECE is a field which comes with a commitment of lifelong
learning. This is a result of teachers constantly being introduced to new
skills, strategies and technology to teach children with (Clark & Grey,
2010). Hence the reason for teacher’s
to focus on and expand their knowledge about using technology effectively to
support children’s learning and development.
The following video sums up the reason for incorporating
technology in our classrooms; it talks about some of the benefits that
technology can have for the children.
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