Personal Reflection

Personally, creating my blog was a really great learning experience and helped me to see the effectiveness of ICT.  By blogging, it was exciting to post entries, add photos, and to make comments to my peers. I found that maintaining a blog is much easier than what I had thought at the beginning. However, as I experienced some difficulties while blogging, I found myself returning to my original view that technology is troublesome and difficult to use. What happened was two members in our group had some trouble finding their original blogs and eventually they needed to create new blogs. We still do not know how it happened and why it happened. "As a learner, my ideas about technology are still developing..."(Smorti, 1999, p. 9). 

Nevertheless, I realised that blogging is a very useful tool to share our reflections. “Blogs allow users and readers to respond, to create, and to connect” (Hong, 2008). This collaborative reflection helped me to see various ideas and thoughts in relation to ICT and ICT related learning. For example, one of the peers commented on my first entry about how I could put my learning from the readings or experiences into my practice. This was a good question to think about.  I found the answer by reading Somerset’s (2007) book, which was by giving the children as many opportunities as possible to participate in ICT learning. “Whatever offers in the way of material at any time will determine the activity and its direction”(Somerset, 2007, p. 85). As children are frequently exposed to an ICT learning environment, their ICT capabilities will grow in the use of sharing information, thoughts and ideas “Children learn strategies for active exploration, thinking and reasoning” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 88).

By reading others’ blogs, I realised that we all have discovered the effectiveness of ICT in children’s learning and development. ICT enables children “to understand how and why products work the way they do” (Ministry of Education, 2007). For example, three of us talked about digital cameras which are a helpful tool for the child to develop a sense of self and a sense of confidence by taking ownership of the camera. It also provides the child with new opportunities to explore and to take photos of their interests. Their photography is a source for teachers to understand the child more and to connect with their parents and families. Through the use of ICT, children take their learning further. “Children develop a sense of “who they are”, their place in the wider world of relationships, and the ways in which these are valued” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 68).

Another interesting finding was to know what ICT was. In the beginning, I was surprised to hear that “technology is about helping people and solving problems” (Smorti, 1999, p. 5). I wondered how it could be.  However, this began to make more sense to me when I was thinking about non-digital technology. As I thought about how glue guns have changed, I came up with idea the forms of technology also have changed over time according to people’s needs and interests. This concept helped me to understand technology in depth and this also allows me to take a positive view on ICT learning. The comments from my group members were very supportive and broadened my views.      

Finally, I have learned the importance of the teacher’s role by reading Tsantis, Bewick and Thornton’s article (2003). They stressed that teachers’ attitudes are the central factor to making things different. I also realised that my attitudes impact the children’s learning disposition. By comparing the past and the present, I realised that my attitude has changed and I facilitate ICT learning by downloading software for my sons. “The process of reflection includes reflective thinking and self-examination during or after teaching” (Yang, 2009, p. 11).

References

Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum. Retrieved from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-documents/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga  ngā mokopuna Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media.

Smori, S. (1999) Technology in Early Childhood. Early Education, 19, 5-10.

Somerset, G. (2000). Work and play in the early years (4^th ed.). Auckland: New Zealand. Playcentre Federation.

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.

Wang, H. (2008). Exploring the educational use of blogs in U.S. education. US – China Education Review, 5 (10), 34-37.

Yang, S.-H. (2009). Using blogs to enhance critical reflection and community of practice.  Educational Technology & Society, 12 (2), 11-21.  Available online from http://www.ifets.info/journals/12_2/2.pdf