Explore, Discover and Learn.

Computer (Laptop)                             5/03/2012

After reading one of my class-mate's reflection and noticed how lucky their children are, because they access to computers at free-play time. I wanted the children at my centre to do not miss the stage of introducing computers to them at their early age, so I was thinking of taking my laptop with me to the centre. From my previous experience with the children, we used cameras but it was only for limited time because it's the centre's resources but with my laptop, I can allow children to access to it as much as they can.

I took my laptop and all its accessories including the mouse, speakers, and handy-printer and set them up on the table where all children can access to it. They gathered around the table and looking at each accessory and asked lots of questions about what are they called and how each accessory works.

I have not access to computer until third form at high school and it took me awhile to learn how to use it and once I was onto it, computer was like a buddy to me. Computer shows why it is important to teach young children about technology because I broadened my understanding of computer when answering children’s questions and my own knowledge and skills base were continued to extend (Smorti, 1999). It is vital to introduce computer to young children because they need to develop their own perception and ability to continue obtaining new knowledge and skills. Te Whāriki agrees that children will develop a perception of themselves as confident learners who ask questions and make discoveries when experiencing in an environment where they learn strategies for active exploration (Ministry of Education, 1996).

Computer is one of the technologies that are very important for children’s learning and it is not only for them but for teachers too, including me. Even though I looked for how will children learn while experiencing with computer and its accessories but I have noticed that I have learn from it too. It demonstrates the term “tuakana-teina” which it means that children and teachers are learning from each other (Bishop and Glynn, 200). Their questions were challenging my thinking and all the answers that I have to respond to them had to have an example of something that has to do with their learning. For example, “the keyboard is where we type in our words or the alphabets and it will shows on the display or the screen”. Talking with children while they are at the computer and explaining what is happening helps them to understand how things work for example, "If you move the mouse, the arrow on the screen will move like this."  Computer does not only help with children’s academic learning but it also helps them with their eye-hand coordination skills when using keyboard and the mouse (Tsantis, Bewick and Thornton, (2003).

I am glad that I have done introduced computer and its accessories to the children because I have never access to computer at my early age but I did it for them. At the same I am aware of the disadvantages of using the computer and I have to make sure that children will not spend more of their time on it. I believe that I can do more than what I have already done with these children by downloading some alphabets and musical software that could support children with their learning and development.

Reference List

Bishop, R. and Glynn, T.  (2000). “Kaupapa Māori messages for the mainstream”.  Set Research Information for Teachers, no1.  pp.4-7Atkinson, T., & Claxton, G. (Eds.) (2000).  The intuitive practitioner: On the value of not always knowing what one is doing.  Buckingham: Open University.

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, 19, 5-10.

Tsantis, L., Bewick, C., & Thornton, S. (2003). Examining some common myths about computers in the early years. Young Children on the Web, November 2003, 1-9.