Blog 1
Building
tower with coloured cubes (non digital technology)
Today, I noticed most of the
children were playing in the blocks corner at my centre. This includes N, a three
year old girl, and D who celebrates his four years birthday at the centre on
Thursday last week. N and D were like
leaders in their groups stacking coloured cubes up and see who’s got the
tallest tower.
N stacked the cubes up and
the others tried to hold them and to prevent from falling over. The cubes are not firm enough to sit on the
other because it’s light and the tower can easily fall down when it’s too high. N and her group’s tower starts to wobble when
it went a little bit higher than their heights. It was funny when N knocks the tower down and
the rest of her group laughed and they started to stack a new tower again.
D and his three other
friends were absorbed in building their tower next to N and her group. What
really caught my attention in D’s group was how they used the colours to form
up a pattern. D used three colours in
their activity which was blue, red and yellow.
He called out what colour will be next and kept on stacking the cubes as
his friends handed it to him. Their
tower ended up on the ground when they went too high above their heights.
During my tea break I reflect
and asked myself a question. “Are the
coloured cubes, a technological resource”?
I quickly recalled what Smorti (1999) simply define technology as
solving problem and or knowledge, skills and resources that combined to find
solution to a problem. Now this means
that all resources used by children to create something they are capable of and
find solution at the end, are technological resources. For instance, when the children saw the cube
blocks, the first thing comes to their mind was to build a tower. In this case the children already have their
technological knowledge about what to do with the coloured cubes.
I shared my thoughts with the teachers in the
centre and they agreed when I read out Smorti’s idea about technology. (Fleer and Jane 2011) confirmed that
technology is everything we use around us for example, construction, clothing,
tools, computers, etc. In fact, we both
had the same insights as the teachers in my centre. We thought
that the term technology is about the knowledge of communication, such as
phones, computers and the entire digital devices only, but never thought of non
digital technology.
When I finished my break it
was mat time already, all the children were sitting down and the teacher used
the coloured cubes to extend children’s learning from their activities in the
morning. This gives the children more ideas of using the cubes, not only for
building towers but to assess their colours and maths like counting, shapes and
adding, for example, two yellow plus 3
blue cubes equal five. I was so confident
this time because I assured that the coloured cubes are technological resources
so I started taking photos of the resources.
The teacher also extended the activity by sending one child to go around
the room to look for another square shaped object apart from the coloured cubes,
or a rectangle shaped block and different other shapes.
Next time when I come to the
centre, I will introduce more other different blocks and non digital technology
that will be more appropriate and firm enough to build a tower. It is important for children to develop
confidence to acquire new knowledge they need as life –long learners (Ministry
of Education, 1996).
References
Fleer, M. & Jane, B.
(2011) Design and Technology for children
3rd edition, Pearson
Australia, Sydney.
Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopunao Aotearoa : Early childhood curriculum. Wellington,
New Zealand: Learning Media
Smori,
S. (1999) Technology in Early Childhood. Early
Education, 19, 5-10.
Kia ora Afa,
ReplyDeleteYour blog is very well written and presented. You have addressed all criteria well. You have also provided a detailed and interesting account of your learning experience with children and also on non digital technology. Your reflection was very useful to me because it helped me in writing my second reflection and gave me a better understanding of non digital technology. Great work and well planned reflection. You give the children plenty of opportunity to be technologically creative. Te Whaariki states that “children experience an environment where they discover and develop different ways to be creative and expressive” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 80).You have also grasped Smorti’s (1999) understanding well and this helped you to understand that technology is problem solving and its everywhere. You have also explained that children were creative in their own way while making the patterns with different colours. Your reflection was very helpful to because it explains me that in simple words technology is solving a problem and or knowledge and skills that combined to find solution to a problem. Tumeke!!!!
Kiaora Afa ,
ReplyDeleteKa pai ! Very interesting reflection and great with your written I really like the way you have written your reflection. I was too not sure at the first but by reading at your reflection and the links you have made to the non technology device. The reflection has helped me with the ideas of how we as teachers can support the children just by sitting beside them. The children showed their creativity with the blocks by using a pattern and stated the colours of it. “Creativity is the ability to look at things differently, make surprising connections, and generate useful products” (Isenberg & Jalongo, 2001, p. 467). I agree with your block reflection becuase in fact, I have seen this actually happening in my centre but I did not thought that block could be a non teachnologhy device. After reading the two reflections from our group members and also the literature, I have come to know more about the non –technology device . Technology is serving and solving problems and is also a creative and focused activity aimed at meeting needs and opportunities through the growth, development of products, systems or the surroundings (Smorti,1999). This reflection has given me some ideas how we as the teachers can share the knowledge and children’s learning between our teachers. In reflection you have mentioned about your thought and how you are going to extend this block activity. Technology understanding and the uses of materials properties and important to know how and why, things work that way they do (Ministry of Education, 2007).
Kia ora, Afa,
ReplyDeleteI have read your reflection on blocks. Is is clearly written and well explained. From your blog on non digital technology I have a clear understanding of how useful it is for children and how it helps them in their learning. Good job and well planned reflection on blocks. Reading at your blog reflection I considered that the children were given more opportunity to be creative in technology by using different colours of blocks. T Whariki states that"children experience an environment where they discover different ways to be creative(Minstry of Education,1996,). Yo hsve recalled Smorti's (1999)understanding well and this reading have given you the clear explaination that technology is also a creative and purposrful activity to meet the needs through the development of environments. From your reflection I had a clear explanation of what technology is about and how it helps children to gain knowledge and skills. Ka Pai!!! Great work done.
Ka pai Afa!
ReplyDeleteSimple effective first reflection. I liked the way you creatied you own learning out of this reflection and in a way that made sense to you. I think that we can all appreciate the new knowledge of a non-digital device which has been a process of class discussions and through the reading from Smorti (1999) " Technology in Early Childhood'. This is a very clear informative reading that has allowed us to see the differenced between non digital and digital devices. I parliculary liked how you gave children time to investigate and solve their own problems with making a tower, and how you also are planning on extending their use of resources to allow them to explore using other building materials. According to Fisher & Garvey (1991) "Technology involves thinking about processes, design, searching for solutions, succesful products, study of how things might be, practical invention, solutions, and researching a purpose". During this small experiece the children could be doing just that, thinking about how? they are going to build their tower. They could be searching for a solution to stop the tower from falling over ect..or how they can change their design? for example. So by analyzing our reflections and making new connections to theory and literature helps us make sense of everyday technological processes children use. Tino pai to mahi tamariki ma! Me Koe Afa!