m-Learning in Preschool

As I think about how mobile learning can be incorporated into my classroom of 4 year olds, I find myself struggling with it. I guess I consider smartphones and tablets more of an entertainment type of technology tool rather than a teaching tool. Yes they are useful for eReading, photos, apps, and surfing the internet, but what is its value in preschool. I am very open when it come to using technology in the classroom and I can usually find a way to make any resource or tool appropriate for my classroom needs. It is a little frustrating that I have yet to find or understand the value of m-Learning in an early childhood education setting.

Social Media: Caine's Arcade

The CEO of Lakeshore Learning Materials shared this video in his session at this year HAEYC Conference. He talked about social media and how we can best communicate with families of today's children. It was an amazing reminder of why I became a teacher . . . . . Dreams do come true <3

My future in ECE . . . Distributed Learning

                Chris Dede identifies distributed learning as the ability to create shared “learning-through-doing environments” that is accessible and open-ended. As a professional in early childhood education I don’t plan to leave the field I am so passionate about after I receive a degree in educational technology, instead I hope to use this new knowledge to teach the future leaders of my profession on Kauai. Our communities are rural and it takes anywhere from 45 – 90 minutes to get to the only community college from the towns that are far west and north. Using a distance education delivery for scheduled face-to-face courses here would help to ease the strain for students who are working, have families, and have travelling challenges. It also makes sense to introduce the idea of distance learning to community college students who have no choice but to do a distance learning program if they choose to stay on Kauai while continuing their education. If given the chance to change my locus of control from a preschool classroom of 4 year olds to a synchronous learning environment of future preschool teachers and directors, I will use the emerging technologies available to build our learning community online and in the classroom.

                Lev Vygotski is a very important person in early childhood education and child development. When referring to thought development he says that “children must pass through developmental stages of complexes before they form a concept” and the same can be said about adult learners in distance education. I believe it is a process and aiding undergraduate students in developing that when they are just beginning to build their post-high school education is an opportunity we cannot afford to miss. By incorporating the continual use of the internet and hypermedia interactivity to build community, my curriculum would aim to connect student’s demonstrated abilities with the 21^st century skills they’ll need to move forward.

                Each of the three expressive forms of distributed learning-through-doing fits into how I hope run my course. With all of the information available on the web, it is imperative to help students sort through and organize these sources. Introducing tools for social bookmarking at the beginning of a course will assist individuals in creating a system for resources, collaborative learning, and sharing through the construction of knowledge webs. In addition, I feel that using computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) in the classroom first before ultimately substituting it for actual face-to-face classes throughout the semester would provide the gradual development needed for student success. Although I feel that the use of synchronous and asynchronous means of delivering course curriculum and content has changed the face of education, it cannot and should not replace student practicums as it relates to education. Some experiences must happen in its real-world setting like in the P-12 classroom for authentic growth to happen. One day, I will find a way to incorporate Vygotski’s theories about early childhood development and apply it to what I know about how learning evolves in adulthood. Using technology to build a truly collaborative experience for the adult learners I will one day teach will in turn change the way they view education for their young students.

Synchronous Environments for ECE

As I was looking for an article to use for annotation in this week's group assignment, I came across a research article titled Representational guidance and student engagement: examining designs for collaboration in online synchronous environments. The article basically explains that student's in an undergraduate child development class who participated in their study were asked to design a "theoretically-based, developmentally appropriate, preschool classroom setting" (p.619). The researchers divided students into 3 different groups to accomplish this task and evaluated their online on-line text chat discussions, used an instructional rubric, and student survey. Each group was assigned to a different synchronous condition to complete their collaborative design assignment- 1) Text-only, 2) Shared Representations (2D+Text), and 3) Multi-user Virtual Environments (MUVE). The research by F.R.Sullivan et al. indicated that "representational design appears to have an impact on student collaborative problem solving in chat environments" (p.641). In an early childhood preschool environment, there is often lots of collaboration as various staff, family members, and specialist often come together for the common good of the child. Finding this kind of research, environment, and element in my field excites me.


I thought about my training in the early childhood associate's program at Kauai CC and how routine my child development course was- lots of note-taking, tests, and reading. In fact, our professor spoke so fast we had to use a voice recorder just to keep up. Using a 3D virtual classroom and materials in Active Worlds could have helped me understand how classroom aesthetics and developmentally appropriate design could have been better applied with the theories learned in class. The idea of actually moving furniture and selecting material from a child development perspective would make a great collaborative final project. Instead we did a group brochure that lacked substance and any real connection to the space and children we would one day serve. In addition, so much learning happens among teachers/peers when we get out into the field and actually visit other programs and classrooms, that using the virtual world to bridge our current understanding about design and child development in a manner for further discussion and evaluation seems ideal. Up until now I struggled with seeing the value of Second Life in my profession or personal locus of control, but I am now thinking how very appropriate it could be if used in the right way.


Resource:

Sullivan, F., Hamilton, C., Allessio, D., Boit, R., Deschamps, A., Sindelar, T., & ... Zhu, Y. (2011). Representational guidance and student engagement: examining designs for collaboration in online synchronous environments. Educational Technology Research & Development, 59(5), 619-644. doi:10.1007/s11423-010-9178-x