Final reflection

Digital cameras

I have found getting feedback from the other people in my group has been very helpful. I find getting other peoples perspective and ideas enables me to think more about what I have done and why I did it that way. It also helps me see things in a new and different way.  It is always nice to hear positive comments about the reflections that I have written. This makes me feel good about what I am doing, and how I am fostering children's use of digital and non-digital technologies in my centre. This leads me to want to continue what I am doing and also find new ways I can do this.

One comment I was particularly challenged by was from Beth, relating to my second reflection on children making paper planes. She challenged me to think about why I was encouraging N to make his plane the same as the other children's and thus conform to what others were doing.  I hadn’t thought about this experience in this way. Reflecting on this I can see that I was helping N to develop his problem solving skills, but I could have done this differently. Perhaps encouraging him to think more himself about why his plane was not working would have led to him trying out different ideas. This has led me to think about how I will help children problem solve in the future. I will encourage children to try out their ideas and provide resources to help them do this. For example, perhaps we could go on the internet and look up different ways of making paper planes and then go from there.

Making paper planes

From the feedback I was given on my first post about children using digital cameras I learnt that many people have the same thoughts as I do. I also learnt that even though there is a risk that the camera might get broken children learn so much, and it is important to give children the opportunity to use them. This has helped me realise that it is ok to give children my camera, and I will continue to do this more. I will also continue to teach the children about ethics. Ragina suggested that it would be a good idea to revisit the experience. I agree with this, and this has helped me think about different ways I can do this. I have been thinking about having a wall display of just children's photos and their thoughts and ideas. I think it would be good to do this as it is a fun way of revisiting what they have done. I also think it would be good for parents to be able to see their children's photos and thoughts.

I have come to see that the children in my centre use technology on a daily basis. I can now see that it is important that we continue to provide these opportunities for children. It is through these experiences with both digital and non-digital technologies that children learn and develop their problem solving skills. They also help children gain new knowledge about the world and how it works (Ministry of Education, 1996; Fleer & Jane, 2001). If I didn't give the children the opportunity to use my camera then they would be missing out on significant learning opportunities about ethics (Ministry of Education, 2007). I think it would be a real shame for children to miss out on valuable learning opportunities like the ones I have reflected on. However it is also important to remember that there are also negatives to technologies, and we need to help children see these and find ways to use technology appropriately (Fleer & Jane, 2001). For example, it is not appropriate to use our knowledge of blocks and building to hurt others.

Ramp made from blocks

References
Fleer, M. & Jane, B. (2001). Design and technology for children. (3rd ed.). Australia: pearson Australia.
Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.
 Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand curriculum. Retrieved from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/