26th August 2015

Today's activity was using QR codes. I used to think that QR codes are unnecessary in our life but after this experience, I felt that it is an interesting way to educate and compliment children. Reading the article " Children's power for learning in the age of technology" made me reflect about my own teaching in preschool. As we were going through the article, I questioned if I were able to change my teachings to incorporate technology. I realised it was not an easy task for me to change the way I was teaching and viewing how children learn. However, we as educators need to admit and realised that technology is part of every child's life and therefore should also be an outlet to how they acquire knowledge. The idea of giving the power to the children scares many teachers including myself. We often say that learning should be self-directed but the power was never given to the children. With technology, children could be given the autonomy to learn at their own pace. With this, the biggest take-away I had from today's lesson is that teachers should be open to changes and not undervalue the power of technology.

25th August 2015

Today marks the second lesson of information technology and it was an interesting one. We were tasked to bring an old technology and it was seemingly a tough task for me as my family often threw away things that we do not use anymore. I managed to find my old samsung phone that I used to text and listen to music with. My old samsung was from 10 years ago and it had a camera, music player, radio and texting function. Through the sharing in class, it reminded me that anything and everything could be used to teach concepts to children if used appropriately. A simple walkman with the function of recording could be used as a "ranting box" to children. I have also learnt that technology has shifted from something that is sensorial to something that is tactile. One of my take away is that the language that we have used such as "application" and "mouse" has a very different meaning now. It reminded me there is a need for us as educators to change our perspectives on technology. Technology is part of every child's life and there is a need for educators to interact and engage  children using technology.

24th August 2015 First post

Today was my first lesson attending the Information Technology class. Due to a negative experience in my Polytechnic information technology module, I was feeling very apprehensive about the  Information Technology class. Thankfully, I had several takeaways from today's lesson. Today we reviewed the article - Enculturation of technology in Preschool children. One important takeaway I had  from today's article is how easy it is for preschool children to pick up on using technology. The article  states that young parents and children with older siblings are more inclined to using technology as  compared to those who does not have an older sibling. In terms of the Singapore context, reading the  article made me realised that home based assistive technology has more pros as compared to cons however these assistive technology are expensive. Children with special needs coming from low/middle class income family are more reluctant and unable to afford such technologies. It got me to think if there could be more funds to support children with difficulties.