Blog Post # 2 Using Technology in Kindergarten

Kindergarten life, Capturing A Unique Insect With An iPhone

View Full Post: http://kindergartenlife.wordpress.com/2012/06/17/capturing-an-unique-insect-with-an-iphone/#comment-127

This is the end of school and my students have only a day left of Kindergarten. I share the photograph of the Luna Moth on my SMART board with my students. I pose a question, “What do you notice?’ We take some private think time to think about our observations and then we turn and talk to a friend about what we notice. These are some of the comments that the children shared; “it looks furry, I think it is symmetrical because what is on the left side is the same as the right side, it has 2 sets of wings, the antennae look like small feathers like a bird, it has green, black and yellow, the body is hiding under the wings, I think it is an insect because it has 3 body parts.” Wow! Through this brief encounter with this photograph you can see how much information the children not only have from prior learning experiences, but how they are able to connect and use their prior knowledge to make observations about something they have never seen before.

My Response:
Sometimes when making up lessons I forget that a simple picture can spark such an interest and passion for learning. What a wonderful way to activate prior knowledge, create new knowledge, do research, collaborate, communicate, incorporate language arts and science, and so on. I love the fact that technology can be so easily integrated into the classroom! One of my favorite things to do as a teacher is to use science as a stepping stone into other content areas. This is a perfect example of how students can be motivated by and invested in their learning. Technology offers a whole new component to education and I am excited to read ideas like this that help me to have a better understanding of how I can use technology with my kindergarten students in a developmentally appropriate way. Thank you for sharing!
Cindy

My Response to Blog #1 (Revisited) Internet Safety

Mary Beth- I agree that as in real life "stranger danger" regarding technology is also an important issue to address with young students. So far, I have used technology in the classroom on the Smart Board to teach lessons, in literacy centers for educational games, for reading intervention, etc. As I learn more about the uses of educational technology (blogs, wikis, twitter) I would like to incorporate these into my instruction. Therefore, internet safety is critical. Thank you for the example lesson. It will be a great start in helping me teach my students to use the internet safely. You take a very simple, logical approach and I think the students will quickly catch on!

Blog Post #1 (Revisited) Internet Safety

How To Teach Internet Safety With Younger Elementary Students
View Full Blog: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/internet-safety-younger-elementary-mary-beth-hertz

Back in October, I wrote a post about Teaching Digital Citizenship in the Elementary Classroom. As it is Internet Safety Month, I want to share a sample lesson for teaching Internet Safety to students as young as kindergarten. Yes, you read correctly . . . kindergarten.
With children spending time online at younger and younger ages, it is vital that we explicitly teach young children how to protect themselves online. Most young children get the "Stranger Danger" talk at school, so they know about how to handle strangers in their neighborhood and in face-to-face situations.
There are three considerations when addressing Internet safety with these students. First, the transfer of handling strangers in "real life" to those in virtual environments is not automatic. It needs to be taught. Second, while most "Stranger Danger" programs teach that strangers are scary, mean and want to hurt or abduct children, this contradicts the way collaboration occurs between strangers online. Not all strangers are dangerous. Lastly, in "real life," students can walk or run away from a potential threat. In an online environment, the danger is inside a student's home and hard to escape without the necessary skills for handling tough situations.
This is a lesson that I have done with my kindergarten and first grade students to introduce the idea that strangers exist on the Internet and to discuss how we should interact with them.

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Reflection #1

Reflection:

Taking this course has really opened my eyes up to what is taking place in educational technology.  I knew that the use of technology was rising within the schools however I had no idea of how quickly it was being implemented.  I thought our district was keeping doing a good job at keeping pace with the growth of technology but as I have read articles and looked through wiki’s and blogs I see that there are school districts throughout the state that are far exceeding us.  I have learned that in order to understand educational technology’s role, you need to be immersed in the research that is available.  I had never used Twitter, Google Reader, and Diigo before.  I have come to see how easy it can be to keep informed.  I have also learned that it takes time, a lot of time but that it is okay not to try to view everything.

Tomorrow, I will not forget that using technology in the classroom is much more than using Smart Board lessons, educational and intervention games, and video.  Using technology in education to develop critical thinkers involves getting students involved in the process as well as the product.  I have learned that it is important to use technology outside of the classroom walls and school to create a global community.  I have learned that students are already ahead of the game when it comes to understanding the networking capabilities which technology can offer.  I need to catch up to them!

Before I go back to school in the fall, I would like to do more research on some of the sites that I found which would help direct my instruction with using technology.  Ideas are already running through my head.  I would like to start small.  I was thinking about setting up Twitter with another kindergarten class in our school so that we can compare and discuss the topics we are learning about.  I would like to set up a blog with parents so they can connect to and see what we are doing each week. I would like to use more video of the students and embed it into a website they can go to and review what we have done throughout the year.  The possibilities are endless.  I think my biggest challenge will be time management.  I would start small, maybe working on one or two projects a year and building from there so I don’t drive myself crazy. 

This course has helped me in finding resources that I can use to apply to my future knowledge and classroom instruction.  I know more than I did just two weeks ago about educational technology in general.  One thing I will reflect on as I try to develop ideas in the fall is how to coordinate technology with the current curriculum and how I can justify its value.

In response to Michelle's  (http://exploreedtech.blogspot.com/2012/05/blog-post-1.html#comment-form) comments on the article Why We Need To Teach Social Networking by Jeff Utecht.  Retrieved from: http://www.thethinkingstick.com/:


These are new behaviors we need to be teaching in schools. We teach how to share, in the physical world. We teach how to cooperate, in the physical world. We teach how to stay away from danger in the physical world. But do we teach these same skills in the new digital sense? Why not?

Michelle-You bring up several interesting points in regards to our responsibilities as teachers in this new digital world. We do teach students how to share, cooperate, and stay away from danger in the physical world and we should also do it in the digital world. Of course, I believe that parents and schools should work collaboratively to create guidelines.  I also agree that social media has opened up a whole new world of communication and networking for the younger generation. It is more difficult (as a parent) to monitor everything that your child sees and hears on the internet.  There are a whole new set of rules that we need to keep in mind as our children/students use media.

In response to Kristen Tripp (http://kristentripp.blogspot.com/2012/05/blog-1.html#) comments regarding New Pedagogies For the Digital Age by:  Terry Heick http://edudemic.com/2012/05/new-pedagogies-for-the-digital-age/ 


I agree that communication, reflection, collaboration, community, creative tools, and amplification are all a part of essential learning components. I feel students should feel comfortable using the previous components in order to learn.
I also enjoyed the information in the slide show. I also agree that communication, reflection, collaboration, community, creative tools, and amplification are essential components of learning. I believe that these are all areas that our current school systems fail to meet. Educational technology opens up a whole new world of teaching and learning. I think it is heading in a direction which is going to help create learners who are more prepared to succeed in our changing world.

Article Review:
Inspiring Learning Outcomes with Twitter in the Kindergarten Classroom.
by K. Walsh (April 10, 2011)
Retrieved from: http://www.emergingedtech.com/2011/04/inspiring-learning-outcomes-with-twitter-in-the-kindergarten-classroom/

This article discusses how social networks such as Twitter can be used in a kindergarten classroom to connect students with authentic learning experiences aligned to learning outcomes.

Blog Post #1
In learning about issues in educational technology I really wanted to understand how all of this information could be used in the kindergarten classroom in which I currently teach.  I could not imagine how effective Twitter would be with my students.  However, after reading this article my view point has changed.  In the article, a group of four kindergarten teachers set up Twitter in hopes of creating a larger community of learners.  In brief, the kindergarten class accessed Twitter to develop a relationship with kindergarten students from across the globe.  In this project, the students created a fictional character in which the two school would write about.  The children used journals in which they recorded their fictional characters adventures and experiences.  Through the project, the students learned about maps, time zones, animals, climates, and daily life from each other.  Through this project, kindergarten students were engaged in authentic experiences which also met learning outcomes.

This project allowed students the opportunities to practice writing, researching, reading, cultural relations, and technology while cover subjects including language arts, science, and social studies.  What an invaluable experience these teachers provided for these students.  This is a perfect example of how 21st century educational technology skills can be used in a kindergarten classroom.