Hello everyone, I am Gunpreesh Kaur. I am from India and here am a full-time student, I am working part-time as an Early Childhood Educator in the YMCA of Regina. However, I have been teaching Pre-Primary and Grade-1 in my country for the past 8 years. This is my 3rd Ed Tech class and when I started Ed Tech courses, it was very different and exciting honestly when we talk about technology; yes it is everywhere and since childhood, I am using it in different ways but there is a lot to learn and understand about it. The power of technology to keep us all connected is so important in today’s world. It provides access to education and entertainment while also allowing us to talk with our friends and family at distance. If I think about my childhood days and using technology was not an everyday thing or activity as I was more engrossed with outdoor games and non-technical products. In school, I use to have computer classes since grade 1, and so we had to share the screen with 2-3 friends and the school was not able to provide one computer each. And when I grew up in my high school days, I got my first personal computer and at that time the internet connection was not that good but yes the excitement to explore different parts of the computer and see new movies and videos was quite fascinating.
Nowadays, being a teacher and teaching pre-schools makes me understand that technology is very important in today’s generation’s growth and that their lives are all around technology. While exploring it, I came across an article it states some great facts about Technology in the Early years of learning. While learning in EdTech classes, I came across an amazing Website/organization and that is CommonSense Education, it supports pre-K–12 schools with lesson plans, edtech reviews, family resources, and everything else students needs to thrive in a connected world. Common Sense Selections for Learning are best-in-class media resources and tools that facilitate great learning experiences for students and educators. Common Sense expert reviewers make hand-picked, official selections annually based on our independent rating criteria and pedagogical rubric.
Developmentally appropriate use of technology can help young children grow and learn, especially when families and early educators play an active role. Early learners can use technology to explore new worlds, make-believe, and actively engage in fun and challenging activities. Technology can be used as a tool to motivate. Technology provides another avenue to explore concepts and skills and may assist children in developing an understanding that was previously a challenge. It has provided the opportunity for self-correcting, trying again, and problem-solving.
Digital play is often ignored in early years policy, yet it holds value for learning and contributes meaningfully to young children’s lives in broader ways. Policy-makers must attend to digital play, and in a way that is representative of a broad range of play practices. Training programs for early years educators would benefit from some consideration of how educators can build productively on children’s home digital play practices.
Thankyou,
Gunpreesh 🙂
Hi Gunpreesh!
I couldn’t agree more with the last two paragraphs of your post, especially the line “developmentally appropriate use of technology can help young children grow and learn, especially when families and early educators play an active role”. I teach at a high school and I see how technology controls and dictates *some* of their lives. I think that is partly because when Ipads and personal devices arrived on the scene it was acceptable to toss a child a device and keep them occupied for hours at a time. Similar to our generations where we were placed in front of a TV. More parents and people are now realizing that time needs to be monitored and educators/parents need to take an active role in guiding that use. I hope in a future post you can share with us what technology use looks like in an early childhood education setting!
Nikki
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on technology!!
i am agree with you, Ed tech classes are really helpful in making our teaching- learning process more effective. Earlier, i was not aware that technology is using in schools also for completing almost all the task, because i didn’t see it before, but after taking classes with Alec and Katia, i get to know more about technology, and its advantages in education sector.