Blog, Blog Blogging
Blogging! It is just a mystery why it was ever called this. It was a mystery how to start. It seemed rather confusing, and it is as though some how I stumbled through it all. It took perseverance and courage to get familiar with it. However, as with most things the more you use it the easier it gets. It was great to have the support of the younger students, who seem to whiz around the computer world with very little hesitation. Truly I am a digital immigrant. So when I get stuck I look for a digital native. (Prensky 2001a)
I heard this a couple of years ago when I was involved in a research project over three years called the ECE ICT PL programme run by CORE. This was a project to encourage the use of ICT within ECE sector. The concept of being an immigrant helped me immensely to understand a few principles. Like applying a scaffolding type of learning by finding the natives to give me support and tips. In other words, find the natives who speak the computer language, who have the confidence and competence gained by being born in this ICT world. It was a young class colleague who just gave me some quiet tips. This helped me to be patient with myself and keep trying.
ICT one expects it be quicker. Then when hours are spent hours just working out how to upload a photo, it feels frustrating. The trick is to remember when you need to do it again, how you did the last time. I used the Help option at times. Well, that really felt like a foreign language. But if I patiently looked at the information I could interpret it.
In 2007 my centre was accepted to be part of the ECE ICT PL project. CORE Education and the Ministry of Education in response to the Foundations of Discoveries 2005 a framework for ICT use in ECE facilitated this. It involved 60 services producing 56 action research reports.
Throughout this course and this assignment, it has been refreshing to recall some of these things that I discovered while doing this project.
I have enjoyed getting to know my class colleagues more. It is so good to see other teachers in practice and how the have approached children’s learning with technology activities.
I have a very big feeling that there is a whole worldwide cyber space universe out there. Just so much more I could be doing to enhance children’s learning. I do believe that as I become more confident and capable my practice will improve, and children's learning enhanced. (Ministry, 2005 p. 9) I am inspired by the comment from Jill Hammond,
The Sky ‘s the limit. Make sure you the teacher are not.
References:
Prensky,M., (2001) Digital Natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon (NCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5. Retrieved from http://www.twitchspeed.com/site/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.
Ministry of Education. (2005). Foundations for discovery. Wellington: Ministry of Education
Hatherly, A., Ham, V., & Evans. L. (2009) Effective learning in Early childhood Education? The impact of the ECE ICT PL Programme: A synthesis report.
http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/ece/79138
Blogs I have commented on
5. http://miriammit.blogspot.com/2011/04/blog-post-4-treasured-gifts-for-easter.html#comments I raised an interesting point here.
6. http://rainmit.blogspot.com/2011/04/discovery-about-light.html#comments
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