Second Article Review: A New Look at Integrating Technology into the Curriculum

I read this article from Early Childhood Education Journal, Vol 26, No 2., entitled A New Look at Integrating Technology into the Curriculum, by June L. Wright (Education Department, Eastern Connecticut State University, Willimantic, Connecticut).

Wright participated in a series of 2-week seminars focused on integrating computers into a constructivist early childhood curriculum. She worked with teachers from two cultures to find authentic ways to incorporate software into childcare centers in Helsinki, Finland and Willimantic, Connecticut. (She worked with two others with doctoral degrees at the University of Joensuu, Finland).

They started with certain philosophical perspectives:
1) children are active learners, constructing their own knowledge,
2) Curriculum development is guided by the interests of learners; and
3) when used with "appropriate software and teaching strategies," the computer is a tool that can enhance young children's learning.

I am very much in agreement with children being "active learners" and "constructing
their own knowledge." However, in the public schools we don't always have the option to "guide the curriculum development" by the students's interests. Though, sometimes surprisingly, kindergarteners often are "interested" in the assigned curriculum. I'm still processing how computers can be effectively taught and utilized in the early grades of public school. Anyway, the point is day care centers have a much more open opportunity to shape curriculum for their youn learners. I've taught kindergarten at a private school/day care, and have seen it taught at a private school (while I was teaching first grade and did some cooperative projects with an amazing kindergarten teacher there), so I'm seen several sides of the comparison between day care/kindergartens, private school kindergartens, and the public school system I'm in currently.


Interestingly enough, the college education professors involved in this study had previously worked with a set of 11 bilingual programs which they felt provided an appropriate introduction to the computer.

Wright and colleaqes goal was to "study the impact of constructivism in the Project Approach and the theory of Multiple Intelligences on the potential power of technology in the classroom." Their first project was to visit a farm in rural Connecticut. Each teacher would observe a single child, looking for different interests and understandings.

Children's interests fell into four caategories:
1) animal families; 2) farm machinery; 3)jobs on the farm; and 4)how we get the food we eat.

The teachers used computers and robots (!) to offer new ways to enhance the field trip. The children interested in machinery created a large floor map of the farm. They used Roamer Robots to play out the roles of the tractor and trucks, moving animals and produce to necessary locations. Another group of children created families of animals using a mural maker program that produced a variety of sizes of animals. Later they used these images as puppets to act out life on the farm. The students who chose to study the jobs of the people, read books and applied what they had seen and read to a program that allowed them to write a story and create farm illustration about those people living on the farm. The fourth group of students looked through song books and recipe books for information about food. Since they couldn't find a song to match their subject, they wrote one themselves. The result, Our Farm Book of Recipes and Songs was published by this group and then sent home to their parents.

The Finland teachers' project was to combine bicycles, cameras, and computers with a field trip to a Finland forest (in A Multimedia Vision). Four, five- and six-year-olds used disposable cameras to take pictures of what they thought was important. The photos were printed, similar topics were categorized and sequenced, selections were made and digitalized. The children's voices were added. Some students added
pictures made from computer programs. The final project was the children's reflections on walking through a forest. The teachers thought that the students gained a "true sense of belonging" to the group and an awareness of the different perspectives of other membrs of their group.

These ideas could be utilized on any field trip or classroom event, using the imovie
process we learned in our class. Adding appropriate music, would make such a presentation shine.

During the third and fourth session, teachers experimented with web pages to share teaching ideas and, also, to share stories the childrenha written. A stuffed Buddy Pet Exchange took place, too. Finland's students learned about a Connecticut mammal
(the whale) and Connecticut children learned about Finland's hedgehogs. (The animals were exchanged through the mail and e-mails and pictures of new adventures the animals had were exchanged between countries.)

I really liked this stuffed animal exchange. It seems like it would really hold the children's attention, interest, and authentic reason to learn about the animals and settings in which they flourished. A creative and fun way to learn science objectives of animals and their habitats.

The last part of the teachers project was their own portfolios and demonstrations of their own multimedia projects.

The end of the article invited all readers to offer ideas or ask questions. The teachers provided a web address to do this on.

It would be fun to have time to go to their web site and read more. (Perhaps this summer my schedule will allow for this.)

The unique thing about this article is it presented not only practical projects with young children but, also, included some useful ways to reach out to build a cross-cultura community. Undoubtedly, this would benefit both teachers and students--- through sharing ideas and insights on both the children's and the adult teachers' level.

I'm still not sure how some of these projects were actually done on the computer but just thinking within my own mind about the possiblities is exciting and a beginning place for a native immigrant to start!