My Technology Lesson Plan

Assignment 12.13 by Hannah Norman on Scribd

Educational Technology Perspective

Working in Early Childhood Education, there are a lot of different resources provided to us in order to conduct productive development. Having students so young, we don’t necessarily rely on technology in order for the children to learn. At their stages in development hands on interactions have the most benefits rather than technology based learning. As teachers we do all have access to laptops, and desktops as well as a tablet in each classroom. These tools are mainly used for lesson planning and child observations. In some cases I may have the children watch a short video on the laptop during circle time. These videos consist of alphabet songs, counting, and songs that allow the children to do different things as they’re directed. For the most part throughout the day children will not be granted the opportunity to explore with these tools, mainly because they are not capable of operating it appropriately. With that being said, I feel teacher and student technology interactions may only take place once or twice a week for a small amount of time.

               

As of now, my classroom is mixed age, where ages can range from six weeks to three years old. Looking at my class as a whole, their all between twelve to twenty four months; we categorize this age group as infant toddlers. The issues my students may encounter when using technology in the classroom is the fact that they don’t know how to appropriately operate the tools effectively. Also in my opinion too much exposure to technology at a young age doesn’t always positively benefit the child. Working in child care for so long, I’ve seen first-hand that children learn more effectively hands on, as well as having face to face interactions with other children. I feel that if I were to teach school age children, then the over use of technology may be an issue, but for my age group it’s not something we deal with on a day to day basis.

                

The issue I’ve come to when trying to incorporate technology in the classroom, is again the fact that my children don’t know how to operate technology systems on their own, as well as trying not to venture away from hands on experiences. Since I am pretty up to date on how to use many resources it’s not an issue to have technology in the classroom. It’s more so what’s age appropriate, as well as what will be beneficial to their development. I do plan to continue to show short educational programs to them, as well as incorporating some sort of technology activity on a week to week basis. It is frustrating to see how much technology has taken over our world already, and I can only hope that children’s face to face interactions and learning experiences won’t be taken away for good. This helps with social skills, and hands on learning allows children to experience a new idea while being taught about it at the same time. Over all technology in the classroom is great, but for early learners technology doesn’t always have the same benefits. 

Classroom Layout

My classroom design is set up for infant toddlers. Teaching a group that’s more hands on than anything limits the amount of technology we choose to use inside the classroom. Technology is especially limited since my students don’t necessarily rely on technology on a daily basis. The one thing that I did choose to incorporate in my room layout is a computer. I think that we could use it in order to watch programs, or engage in interactive activities that are beneficial to their developmental levels. Having just one technological resource inside the classroom forces teachers and children to interact socially in order to teach and learn new ideas. Although technology is a great way to introduce new information, I feel that hands on learning are the best ways to teach young learners.

 The layout of my classroom is set up in different “areas” throughout the room. Early childhood educations focuses mainly on hands on interactions, so having access to a variety of materials is essential for positive development. Throughout the room there are many selves at a height easy for children to access materials. As well as a reading, dramatic play, math and manipulative, science and art area. I added the computer to the reading area because that’s a relaxing space for children to interact with different computer activities. For the most part throughout the day children are able to explore freely with teacher and peer interactions. Each day we have a specific activity that we focus on, but for the most part they are able to explore any area that they’d like. Having the classroom organized in a way that each area has a main focus, keeps children’s minds engaged on similar ideas rather than grouping different domains in one. From experience I know that the more organized your classroom is, the easier it is for children to grasp different ideas and develop on the right track.

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Tech Tool Review

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Pinterest in the classroom

While doing the Pinterest activity I learned two important things. The most important thing I learned was how to use it, and how you can have different boards that house your pins. Boards can have different topics, to where your pins connect. The second thing I learned was all of the different things you can find on Pinterest and how there is something for pretty much any topic you can think of, as a teacher I find this very useful. There are so many different activity ideas to look into, as well as different materials to add to your classroom to make it more convenient for learning. I plan to continue to use Pinterest to get ideas for weekly activities for my students.

The main strength of Pinterest, that I noticed, is how organized you can be with the specific pins that you find interesting. Like I mentioned before, you can create different boards which can have specific topics, pins are then sorted onto each board in which they relate to one another. During this activity I didn’t really seem to have any challenges, or questions. For some it may be somewhat challenging to grasp the different concepts of the boards and pins and how they correspond, but for the most part it is very user friendly, and I’m excited to continue using it. 

Khan/Koller Review

Looking on the Khan Academy site, I first began to look at some of the subject areas I struggled with in high school. I feel that if I were aware that this site existed I may have tried it out. While browsing it was pretty straight forward on how to get to different things and I liked how organized the site as a whole was. I would definitely encourage students to use this site, because I know there are many students out there who are like I was in school. I didn’t like asking for help, or getting extra help outside of the classroom. I feel that Khan Academy helps students like I was get that extra help they may need at a more convenient time for them. Watching a few videos I feel Khan did an exceptionally good job on taking the time to explain each topic, as well as it being easy to follow along and learn from. Lastly I think Khan is right when he talked about relying more on credentialing through online courses. In my opinion I think this style of learn is very much so more accessible for many students. I feel this way because it allows students to learn at their own pace as well as in an environment that may be more comfortable for them.

As I began to explore the courser course offerings, one that looked the most interesting to me was the courses on Virtual teaching. I think this is interesting because many schools offer online options, so being able to take courses to help educators do their job better, as well as teach those that are interested is beneficial. I feel the Coursera courses look pretty interesting for the most part; the part of the course that I looked at was pretty much the same type of assignments each week. It may not be that way for all course options, but that is one part I didn’t necessarily like. On the other hand it could very much be like that depending on the type of professor you have.  Lastly I agree that MOOCs could very much be the “wave of the future.” In my opinion, I would rather take online courses; I’ve found that my performance is better when I’m able to do things at my own pace. After graduating I plan on attending a school with an online program for my major. Columbus State is also one of many schools that accept Coursera credits for students looking to transfer.