Final Reflection

Final Reflection.

First time, when I heard about blog I was so confuse, but my group members help me to set up the blog. When I have set my blog, I felt so confident to use it. I have also learnt so much from my group’s feedback on my post. They gave me positive feedback on reflections and encourage me, as early childhood teacher I need to aware of use technology at the centre. When I got the feedback on my reflection “Children with the Mobile phone” from my group, was very motivated for me. I am very thankful for my group members.

My perspective about the young children using technology now has changed. Before this course, I thought technology means computers and software, aircraft and microwave etc. But technology is more than these touchable products. Now I understand what technology means, technology is the process by which humans modify nature to meet their needs and wants.  Non-digital technology also plays an important role at the every movement of human being. Technology is all about helping people and solving problems (Smorti, 1999). I have now become more knowledgeable about digital and non-digital technology. Through this knowledge, I am able to provide children with many different opportunities and tools that are use for different things to explore their world.

I realised that technology is an important part of early childhood education because children’s learning and development is vast with the use of technology. During this course I have realised technology has some issues. I believe children need to participate in outdoor physical activities such as running, climbing, jumping, water play and mud play etc. Therefore, children can develop their physical, social, emotional skills and problem solving skills. I thought that who use the technology miss the outdoors activities and social interaction, Which I think is normal, to gain something, obviously we have to lose something. As an early childhood teacher, we should balance the outdoor activities with the indoor activities .We should not allow children to use technology in isolation because it could be big obstacle in their personal growth and development. Te Whāriki states that children should experience an environment where they are able to participate in a range of social setting, and they develop a sense of responsibility for, and trust in, other people.

 I am not grown up in a technology world. As an early childhood educator, I am learning modern technology. So I can provide basic knowledge, encourage children write words, and read them, they can work in a group and help each other with technology. By doing this I can develop their language and literacy skill, and working in a group will develop their social skill. Smorti (1999) states that technology is a tool that can provide another way for children to learn and make sense of their world.         

I realised that we early childhood teachers want to children’s learning in technology.  So we need to broaden our understanding of technology and continue to extend our own knowledge and skill base (Smorti, 1999). Overall, this whole blogging assignment was a revelation for me.

Reference

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki, he whaariki mätauranga mo nga mokopuna ö Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

               Smorti, S. (1999) Technology in Early Childhood. Early Education, No.19 Autumn 1999.