You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Patrizia’ tag.
The course has finally come to an end…although sadly the assignments have not 
When I reflect back on the course, one of the first things that comes to mind is the discussion in class on constructionism and who is the teacher and who is the learner. Another thing that comes to mind is the notion of virtual realities and being able to explore things that individuals may not have otherwise had the opportunity to explore through real life experiences. Myself, I am not so comfortable with the virtual world however I do believe that certain aspects of it are quite interesting and have a lot to offer. For example, I love to travel and I know that in my lifetime I will not have the opportunity to travel to all the parts of the world that I would like to visit and the virtual world gives us the opportunity to see places that we would have not otherwise been able to unless of course we traveled there. Other concepts that come to mind when I reflect back on the course readings and class discussions are the debates about whether or not technology can be incorporated into the classroom in a meaningful way, and whether or not play and digital-gaming can provide children with meaningful learning experiences. I must say however, that after this course I am more open to accepting technology as a modern form of learning and have opened up to the possibility that something that children enjoy and is engaging for them can in fact have hold a great deal of educational value. Now that’s a wrap! That’s as big as my name is going to get on the left folks as this was my last posting… it’s been fun, see you in the summer term! Thanks Alex, you were great and offered a lot of insightful information and feedback!
In the world of Early Childhood Education, the importance of play has been scrutinized for quite some time. Critics still question the value of play and if children are inherently learning from this daily task. From my experiences in working with children and families in the field, I oftentimes come across parents who question whether play is in fact a vehicle for learning, and how something “fun” can be educational. I believe however, that we have come a long way in the field in providing compelling evidence that play is a much more complex phenomenon than was once thought as stated in the Prensky (2001) article. Through much observation and extensive studies, we have been able to document the importance of play in children’s learning and how it enhances children’s cognitive and intellectual development.
Through my experiences in working with children in the field, play provides engaging learning experiences for children to explore, interact with one another and their environment and solve problems. I think Prensky’s article speaks very well to the notion of play as a learning vehicle in that it discusses how adults are able to absorb and learn material best when they are having “fun” and participating in an enjoyable experience. Likewise, children are better able to master skills and make sense of their surroundings when they are fully engaged in an experience and when they are able to make meaning from their experiences. This also ties into the discussion on digital games and whether or not children can in fact be engaged in meaningful learning when playing video games. In my opinion, digital game-based learning can provide children with meaningful and valuable experiences if they are able to relate to the contents of the game on a personal level or in a real life experience.
When I think about children as photographers I automatically think of all the funny, distorted and slanted pictures I took as a child whenever I got a hold of my parent’s camera. I recall always being very excited to use this fascinating little machine! Since my childhood I have been addicted to taking pictures…so long as I do not have to be in any of them! As a child, I loved taking pictures of scenery and nature. As I got older, my interests shifted to photographing human subjects. I think that Cathy makes a very good point in her blog about how her child’s photographs give her insight into how he views the world. I think that this can be applied to most if not all of children’s photographs. When we examine a photograph taken by a child and the subjects that he/she focused on within the photograph, I believe that we can gain perspective of how the child views the world and of their interests.
Photography being an art medium allows one to express themselves through creative means. I feel that we can learn a lot about children if we provide them with opportunities in which to explore their creativity and allow their imagination to run wild. When children are provided with creative learning opportunities, they are also provided with an emotional outlet in which to express their thoughts and feelings. Thus photographs taken by children cannot only be used as a means to understand a child’s world, but more importantly their interests, views and emotions.
Gaming has become a phenomenon among children today. In my opinion, children have become so addicted to this technology and spend countless hours glued to the television or computer. I do believe there is some educational value in some aspects of gaming and children can practice certain skills including but not limited to: eye-hand coordination, fine motor abilities, problem solving strategies and decision making processes. I do believe that certain aspects of gaming and certain video and/or computer games can be incorporated into the classroom to add to the curriculum if used as an aid or tool and not to replace other forms of learning. However, I do feel that in our society some children have become addicted to gaming and use it to the extent in which it replaces other activities thus, no longer making it a valuable tool. In this respect I would see technology to be problematic rather than a useful/added resource.
Myself, I am not very familiar with many aspects of gaming however I do from time to time play “Guitar Hero” on my boyfriend’s Play Station 3 as well as on my very outdated Nintendo system…yes I am a fan of Mario and Luigi! In terms of the value of these games I can note that they can help master certain skills as mentioned prior (i.e. eye-hand coordination, fine motor abilities, problem solving strategies etc.) however, whether or not they provide anything that a scholar may deem to be ‘educational’ other than the skills mentioned above is undoubtedly questionable. I think that there is a fine line between using technology as a resource and using it as a replacement mechanism and I believe that we should try to find a balance so that we can incorporate technology in the classroom so that it can become an added learning tool.
For this week’s blog I would like to discuss and share my thoughts on “edutainment” and the digital divide that we are currently experiencing in society. Prior to this week’s readings, I had never encountered the term “edutainment” to my surprise as it involves children, education and entertainment. When I think about various forms of educational entertainment for children I think about television shows and computer games. There are a number of t.v. shows and computer games that I can recall from my childhood that I would consider to be a part of the ‘edutainment’ realm. One of the very famous t.v. shows that I believe still exists today is Sesame Street. This show was quite entertaining and educational if I recall correctly and focused a lot on literacy and numeracy. When I think about the number of educational computer games that exist today, my head is flooded with memories of children that I’ve observed at my placements playing math games and spelling games on the computer. However, I oftentimes question the value of these games, and how much children actually take away from them.
In shifting focus to the digital divide that currently exists, I am quite aware of the recent efforts that are being made to minimize this divide. The first one that comes to mind is the OLPC project as I have recently been engaged in doing research on the project for my final paper. This particular project seems promising in that it is allowing children in impoverished parts of the world to become part of online communities as well as provides them with opportunities to collaborate on group projects and be connected to the world wide web. The second one that comes to mind is the open source movement which allows individuals to freely share software that can operate without a formal licensing agreement and on a number of operating systems. Although these efforts appear to be promising, there is still a great deal of work that needs to be done in order to address the digital divide on a larger scale.
Overall I really enjoyed this class and was quite interested in this week’s topics of discussion. Danny brought a lot of energy to our class and facilitated a very engaging discussion on both the Song Child Project and the OLPC Project. He provided us with a number of thought provoking questions in relation to both presentations, as well as very insightful perspectives on second life, facebook, and garage band. I was particularly interested in garage band as I am currently working on my first single as a recording artist. This application is new to me and I am very interested in exploring it further as we did not have a lot of time to explore how it works and the various applications that it has built into it.
Yael. E. did a great presentation on the Song Child Project and provided us with a number of you tube clips that elicited an engaging discussion amongst the class. I was particularly interested in the discussion surrounding folk culture and how the term ‘folk’ came to be and what it involves. I was particularly happy with the outcome of my presentation was quite pleased that I was able to elicit an engaging debate amongst the class about the OLPC Project and incorporate clips on the media’s portrayal of the project through advertisements, commercials and personal stories. Myself, I am still trying to determine where I stand in terms of the OLPC Project and whether or not I believe that this project is in fact beneficial for children in impoverished parts of the world. I am wondering if education is really the answer in moving these countries forward. I hope to explore these areas in my final paper and in doing more research I hope to gain a better perspective of the project.
When my professor brought up the fact that we would be exploring Second Life this class, I was somewhat uneasy about this and almost instantly thought of the implications that this may have. It could potentially become another computer application in which individuals like myself can become addicted to, or take away what I consider my very realistic perspective on life. I would consider myself to be more of a realist than a dreamer however I thought that this particular experience would allow me to let my imagination run wild and potentially live out some of those unfulfilled childhood dreams. Unfortunately, I was unable to be part of this in class experience however I have created an account with second life and begun to create my avatar. I still feel somewhat uneasy to actually begin to explore this application although I plan to do so in the upcoming week. From what I have heard from classmates, the experience was quite eventful. The virtual world was said to offer a number of new experiences in which individuals may have not otherwise had the opportunity to engage in, in the real world. This in a sense excites me as I love to travel, however I know that in my lifetime I will likely not have the opportunity to travel to all of the places that I would like to and second life may give me the opportunity to do so. I guess I will have to go and experience this for myself before I can pass judgement! I will let you all know how this goes!
In today’s class we discussed the history of E-learning and millennial children. I was quite interested in the class discussions on how to enhance or create an “ideal classroom” using technology, and the digital divide that exists today. I am aware of the importance of trial and error and experimentation and how this can enhance our knowledge as practitioners and inform our practice. More importantly however, I feel that it is our duty as practitioners to provide opportunities for our students to experiment with various technologies so that they can be better prepared for the future as I believe that we are moving towards a predominately technologically based environment. However, I also believe that it is equally important that we continue to allow our students to have other learning opportunities that are not based around technology and that we do not neglect other avenues of learning.
In terms of the Digital Divide, I would consider myself to be a ‘Digital Native.’ I consider myself to be pretty technologically savvy, however as technology is constantly evolving there are a number of things that I have not been introduced to—second life/virtual reality being one. I do feel that I am guilty of relying too heavily on technology and often wonder how I would survive without my cell phone, computer or I-pod. With that being said, this brings me to my next point in which our professor brought up in class—what do we do when technology fails? The most reasonable or even sane answer seems to be that one would go about doing things in different ways to compensate however I think it is fair to say that some of us would be lost without technology—myself being one of those individuals. Now whether we can admit this or not is another story…
Today Alex facilitated the class discussion on social media and the difference between social media and visual media. I was particularly surprised when she discussed Wikipedia and how it is a good starting point for research as well as how it is increasingly gaining recognition in the academic world. Throughout my undergrad, I recall how many professors criticized Wikipedia and stated that it could not be credited as a reliable source for obtaining information. I also found the discussion on “online communities” to be rather interesting and how technology has played a significant part in allowing individuals to come together to share a space, culture and essentially have their own voice. I am quite surprised at how quickly these communities are gaining popularity and how individuals can forgo face-to-face contact and still manage to do a number of things using technology that they were once upon a time not able to do. Personally, I have used several types of and visual media including: facebook, youtube and ebay. I like all three systems and think that they provide great ways for people to connect and share information.
Moving to the presentations, I thought that each of the presenters did an excellent job in facilitating the discussions on the importance of play in relation to child development and parent-child bonds as well as constructionism and the importance of situated learning. I was particularly interested in the discussion about what defines a “good parent” and also the discussion about virtual realities. In the near future, I would like the opportunity to explore a virtual reality as this is very new to me and I was unaware that this type of technology existed.
