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Early childhood education majors discuss their concerns about incorporating technology into classrooms in developmentally appropriate ways. They reflect on their own experiences with technology in elementary school, which were fairly limited. They talk about the introduction of smart boards and iPads, but emphasize that technology was not used daily and was seen as a special treat. They discuss the benefits and drawbacks of using technology for reading, math games, and tracking student progress. They express concerns about the negative effects of excessive screen time on young children's eyes and development. They argue that technology should be used with clear intention and limits, and that face-to-face, hands-on learning is important. They mention that COVID-19 has led to increased reliance on technology in schools, but suggest that taking a step back from excessive technology use would be more beneficial for student learning. They also note that decisions about technology use are of Hi everyone, welcome to our podcast. In this episode, we are going to talk about how as early childhood education majors, our concerns about being able to incorporate technology into our classrooms in developmentally appropriate ways. We are also reflecting on our experiences using technology in elementary school compared to how technology is used now. I'm Margaret. I'm Fiona. I'm Lainey. And I'm Trinity. Growing up, in our personal experiences, technology was a lot different than it is now in the classroom. In my personal experience, I never used technology in a classroom until I was in fourth grade when we had our first smart board. I agree. My experience with technology in elementary school was fairly limited. We never had class sets of computers or class sets of iPads. We would have carts that would roll from different classrooms in one computer lab and you would go occasionally, but we never used technology daily, probably maybe once a week, and we never got computers to ourselves until middle school. Yeah, I went to a private school and I don't think I saw any screens in the classroom. I didn't even have the technology lab until I was in sixth grade. And we took a typing class and we all had our own Chromebooks. Yeah, I had the same thing as you, Margaret. I had probably technology once a week. I had the computer lab, but that was for when we did specials and stuff. But besides that, I remember smart boards coming in around third grade whenever they had the projector and stuff. But besides that, there wasn't really a whole lot of technology in the classroom. When I was in fourth grade, a fifth grade teacher won the lottery and bought iPads for her whole class. But it was only that class and the whole school went wild over it. They were so excited and even that was like a special treat. Then I had that teacher when I got to fifth grade and she ended up donating them to the library. So we didn't actually get to use them until we got to the library and that still wasn't an everyday thing. It was a special treat and we maybe spent a few minutes on the iPads, but not the whole special. That's so funny. I'm going to be honest, I don't think that's how I'd spend my lottery money. But nowadays you wouldn't even have to because every single class you walk into has a class set of computers or iPads depending on how old the kids are. But we only used it. We would use certain apps. Typing Pal was a big one. That's how I learned how to type. And then we would use it for math games. Like IXL, which I think everybody used. And then there was this one monster math game, but I just can't remember what it was called. But that was a treat. You had to finish your other work to go on the monster math game. I remember this wasn't really math games, but cool math games. There was some stuff on there that was accepted, but then other stuff was not really. We got that taken away. Yeah, that was weird. Because people didn't use it. Once we got to middle and high school and they gave us computers, we would have GoGuardian. I don't know if you guys had that, but it was through Google Chrome. The teachers could watch your screens to see what you were doing. So if you were taking a test or you were supposed to be looking something up and you weren't on the right tab, they could close your tabs for you. So if we had that when we were in elementary school, they would have been closing our tabs all the time. So I think nowadays, kindergartners are using iPads. For example, one of my cousin's teachers at a school, and she was telling me about how in her class, she does kindergarten, first and second grade, and instead of reading books physically in the library, they have an app on their iPads. So the librarian will talk for a few minutes and then they'll read books on their iPads. But the more they read, the more badges they get for reading. So it's a good use to help you read, but I also don't agree that these students should be using the iPads in a library class. I feel like there's some good ways to use technology in classes that can track their development throughout all of elementary school and see where they place compared to others. I feel like reading off of them is a little much because there's so many amazing books in the library. I feel like that's a little unnecessary to have it on the screen. Yeah, like they're sitting there on their iPads when they're surrounded by hundreds of books, yet they're reading on their iPads with blue light getting in their eyes and not getting in their eyes, but all of that. Yeah, I agree. I think that there's some benefits, especially when they can track your learning. But with regards to reading, there's also so many benefits to holding a book and fine motor skills and teaching you how to pinch the pages and get there, or being able to track your reading. I know that's a big thing, using your finger to be able to track your reading and be able to break it down. And then even using skills like how to learn how to find a book in the library and find titles. Those are all skills that teach you more than just how to sit and read a book, but how to like, I don't know, it's just sad that you don't get to read the book. And I think it is good, like you guys were saying, if you need to not test your students, but to be able to have a benchmark of where each student is. And that can be done a lot easier if they're doing it on a website than if you have to meet with every single one of them. But it's also good, too, to hear them speak out loud to you. And if they're only talking, if they're only reading a book and they're just like seeing it and not speaking out loud, too, that could affect their language and speaking skills. Yeah, from my personal experience working at a preschool, I'm a teacher assistant, but the main teacher has like a little library in his classroom. And he requires the kids to pick out a book, and obviously they don't know how to read yet, but it really helps them when flipping the pages and going through the books. And I think that'll really help them. But then once they get to elementary school, that might be ruined with reading on iPads or computers, and they might forget how to do that. Yeah, I feel like growing up, I remember having little reading logs, and we had books that our teacher would give us, but she would also track our reading in second, really second grade. As you started getting into bigger books, like more chapter books, you would start going from, I guess, harder reading levels that your teacher would keep track of. So she would send you home with harder books for you to read throughout the week, but she had kind of the same ones, but would rotate them with everyone, so everyone kind of read the same thing, but you also were able to talk about it, but also develop like that. But I definitely feel like being able to track it the other way is a lot easier, and you have a lot more options being on the internet. But I still feel like using technology in the classroom too much, they'll have a lot of negatives through, like you said, their eyes. They can do much blue light all the time. I know, like me, staring at a computer for hours. Yeah, it really strains your eyes, and especially at such a young age, too. I feel like they should not be exposed to that much technology. I feel like if teachers want to integrate the technology into the classroom, there should be a lot more limits than there are right now. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, there's definitely a time and place to have technology, like reading books, obviously. If you have books around you, there's really no need to have them on technology. Yeah, I agree. I think that's something that we talk about a lot in this integrating technology in teaching class, is to utilize technology with a clear intention. Because I think technology in the classroom has a lot of benefits, like we were talking about. It's good that it can track students' learnings, especially with regards to math, too. If each student has their own individual account on some sort of math platform, and then their learning is specific to what they need help with, that's better than giving all students the same worksheet, where some students are going to find that too easy and some students are going to find that too difficult. But again, the intention behind that is beneficial, because you're doing that with your students in mind, but to just hand them a computer or hand them an iPad for free time, there's so many benefits to communicating with others and face-based learning, physical touching things, too, that I think you just have to be very cautious of the intention behind it. I think that's important, too, because we're all planning on teaching early childhood, where our students aren't going to be using computers to type a paper. Yeah. I had a teacher tell me one time that you'll never learn from someone that you don't like, and I feel like if students are kind of constantly on the computer, not really doing anything very engaging that they enjoy, they're not really going to want to have the desire or like coming to school in the first place, so I don't feel like that's very beneficial if you're not learning something that you like in a way that you like. I also feel like COVID has a big part in why schools are using more technology now. I feel like because during COVID everything was online, some teachers just don't know how to not use technology in the classroom now, but I think honestly taking a step back from that would be a lot more beneficial for student learning. And I think a lot of it, too, isn't even just the teachers, it's the school districts and the people who aren't even in the classrooms that are making these decisions and kind of like forcing teachers to use all these new platforms and things that they might not even know how to use because that's what people are telling them and what the state standards are and stuff like that. So I think, again, it just comes back to being able to identify why you're using the technology versus why you wouldn't be. Because same thing, if you're giving them a piece of paper to do a worksheet on, there should be an intention behind that, too. So everything that you give to students and everything that you introduce them to should have an intention and should benefit and support their learning in some way. I agree. I agree. I also think with technology it is really helpful for class and stuff, but I know I definitely learn best when I write stuff out. If I'm studying for a test, I know I have to sit down and actually write it out with pen and paper. Typing it down, I don't really process what I'm doing. I'm kind of just typing out the words, but when I'm writing it down, I actually think about what I'm writing down. Right. Okay. Thank you, everyone, for listening. Bye. Bye. Bye.