Diigo list

Here it is!

Technology has promoted this student's learning!

I wanted to add some more to my literature review post.
First of all, here is the link to the original article. I found it on the Shapiro Library website:
http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/docview/228412333

And here is another article about a school in Taiwan that is training their students in a similar way:
http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/docview/1282095659

I also found this wonderful article from a seasoned teacher that is basically a step-by-step guide on how to introduce kindergarteners to computers.
 http://www.4teachers.org/testimony/gathers/

And then I found this video that both inspired and intimidated the heck out of me:
 http://vimeo.com/24640792

Once I started searching, I couldn't believe how many results came up. And now I'm off to go search some more!

Enjoy!

Literature Review Week #4

Curriculum Integration: Art, Literature and Technology in Pre-Service Kindergarten Teacher Training

Toren, Zehava; Maiselman, Diana; Inbar, Sara. Early Childhood Education Journal35.4 (Feb 2008): 327-333

This article is about creating a college course for students training to become Kindergarten teachers in Israel. The aim of the course is to teach students how to use computers to enhance literacy and arts learning for kindergarten students while teaching them how to use computers and computer language. The article supports the traditional arts methods that are currently being taught to students such as drawing, painting, photography, and clay and sculpting, but feels that Art should no longer be taught as a separate subject and rather be used in the classroom as a teaching method. The educators at the Arab Academic College for Education in Haifa now feel it is important to teach those traditions along with new traditions such as animation, media art, and computers alongside other subjects such as language and literacy. Basically they believe that technology such as computers allows for a more comprehensive, cross-curriculum teaching experience.

For example, college students were tasked with one specific assignment that they performed with kindergarten students in the young students’ own classroom. They read a children’s story, together with the children, by a well-known Arab author. The college students then helped the kindergarteners develop an illustration for the story using Paint, and then placed it in a Power-Point and animated it with music and movement. Some students scanned images of the book and then adapted them in Power-Point. The lesson continued on with a play adaptation and a performance. The lesson plan used equal parts technology, arts-education, and literacy and language. This is the kind of training that the Arab Academic College for Education has been doing for the past three years (as of February of 2008).

I my opinion, this article and experiment reinforce three of our classroom learning outcomes. The first outcome, to demonstrate the understanding of how technologies can effectively promote student learning, is very clear in the design of the course that is being taught to the college students. “Kindergarten children benefit from technology and computers when technological tools are integrated into learning tasks that allow children to work at their own pace with adult support (Bowman and Beyer 1994; Wright and Shade 1994).” This quote from the article informs me that the student is the center of the learning and the teachers are facilitators, offering guidance and co-learning, rather than dictating the lesson and the student’s learning. These Arab college students are being trained to allow for a variety of ways in which to allow the children to explore the questions and comments that they have about the lesson that has been presented. In this case, it was a book written by a local author. The students were tasked with a project of creating an image, whether through Paint or by manipulating the illustrations from the book, and to have that image convey a feeling through music and movement. They were not told what specific feeling they needed to express, or what specific image they had to use. The kindergarteners were allowed to seek out their own knowledge in response to the book that was presented to them, and to draw their own conclusions. This freedom to express and create helps promote student learning by keeping them interested and engaged, which is in unison with the first learning outcome.

The second learning outcome, evaluate and use a variety of current technologies to enhance content instruction and to advance students’ technological literacy, is demonstrated in the article by mentioning the use of Paint and Power-Point. Since this article is from 2008, I’m sure that there are additional kinds of technology that are now being taught as part of this college course to be used in the classroom, which only further enhances the variety of technologies needed to satisfy the second learning outcome. The other learning outcome that I believe this article reinforces is number seven; demonstrates an understanding of the use of adaptive technologies and other digital sources to personalize and differentiate learning activities for every student. The lesson plan that the college students used with the kindergarten students contained opportunities for students to use the technology tool that they felt comfortable using and which expressed their individual contribution best. Since technology is constantly changing and evolving, using computers in the classroom guarantees a variety of tools that will be at the students’ fingertips. In this way, assignments will always be a reflection of the individual student, rather than a mass-produced, cookie cutter project. The article also mentions that the college students were required to create work portfolios, both tangible and recorded on CDs. With teacher help, kindergarten students can also create digital portfolios, especially using the work that the college students helped them create.

I was thrilled to find this article because it really opened the door for me into how to use technology in the classroom for kindergarteners specifically. I know that even the youngest of toddlers have learned how to use their parents’ phones and IPads, but I was still struggling to imagine a use for technology in the kindergarten classroom beyond learning games and Smartboards. Although the kindergarteners will still need a lot of one-on-one help, this article has changed my view from confused and bleak to hopeful and inspired. Talk about promoting student learning- this student is ready and willing to learn more about how many different useful and creative tools can be introduced into the classroom through technology. Also, being from a Theater Education background, I love anything that speaks to cross-curriculum learning. Rather than treating school subjects as individual blocks of time, I love that this lesson plan and this Arab college course is teaching educators how to maximize learning by combining subjects into one learning experience. I am very excited to move on to the field evaluations as well as continue to research uses for technology in kindergarten classrooms so that I can be on the brink of new learning like these students from Israel.

This is me in 10 years: I'm a star! Ok not really, I was just drawn to this shape. Most of my words relate to my personal life because I have been thinking a lot about marriage and children, although I do have two large career goals. My first goal, the obvious one, is to be a Kindergarten teacher. The other one is to write and publish children books and a novel. This is my other passion outside of teaching. I love to read and write and I am looking forward to a less-busy time in my life when I can do more of both. And in keeping with the technology theme of this blog, let me just state that I love the sound of a clacking keyboard. It makes me want to keep writing and writing.

I’m blogging in class! Is this allowed?

I guess it is now. I can’t wait until I can figure out how to make this blog look nicer. I’ve had some experience with designing newsletters for my classroom but they always end up looking so… square. How am I supposed to keep people coming back to my blog if it’s not visually pleasing? I guess I know what I’m going to be doing on Sunday! Or maybe I should focus more on finding entertaining and interesting information to post. Or how to cite pictures and articles… the list goes on. Eek!