Beginning 2009 with Wisdom

I have been waiting for inspiration to step into 2009 with a positive and meaningful post for the ECEICT blog . As mentioned before - I have a number of draft copies of posts yet to be published. They all seemed an inadequate start to the new year. Today, however, I have been visiting TED again. If you haven't joined TED - I highly recommend them.

Barry Schwartz, a professor of Social Theory, talks about wisdom. That elusive quality that is hard to teach, that crosses cultural communities, age, education - and yet without it even the most intelligent among us can struggle.

Wisdom can not be taught. However I do believe that wisdom can be role modeled. As Schwartz promotes, we need organisations both on the macro level (say Kindergarten Associations, Boards of Trustees, Committees) and the micro level (individual teaching teams, individual teachers) that value wisdom above rules...

Check out what Barry Schwartz has to say. At first I thought I would recommend that you at least listen to the first 5mins... then I listened further and if you have 10min to spare enjoy a cuppa and listen. However, I actually highly recommend that you sit down, enjoy and be inspired by the 20mins of wisdom.

Please observe there is a footnote about ECE below this video.

What is Early Childhood doing about Children and the development of Wisdom?

Te Whāriki (NZ Early Childhood Curriculum) has five essential strands - Wellbeing, Belonging, Communication, Contribution, and Exploration. These we hope are some foundational developments to wisdom. Within our everyday programme we value children's thoughts. We try to connect with individuals at the beginning of the day to get them thinking - "What is your plan for the day?". When disagreements between children occur, we try to step back, or stand beside if asked and support them as they try to think through solutions. When altercations have erupted we sit together to work out how things got so bad that someone felt they had to resort to fists, and consider other pathways that could have solved the problem.

I believe that although wisdom can not be taught, we as early childhood teachers should be valuing this quality in children, parents and teachers - by documenting and celebrating wise choices, thoughts, and negotiations and promoting wisdom by not always sticking to the rules - seeing beyond the (our) rules.

What other ideas do you have to cultivate wisdom in young and older children? How can we help to build a generation of adults who are motivated by practical wisdom.

Who dares teach? - with Toondoo.com

I don't ever remember cartoons being used in my education as a valid form of learning. But as Techno Dys reminds us in their blog (technology and dyslexia) - "If a picture paints 1000 words, then a three picture cartoon must be a 3000 word essay." Toondoo is a fun (and addictive) online cartoon site. Characters, scenary, props can be dragged into cartoon strips and brought to life with written words. At Toondoo.com you can read many cartoons created by people all over the world. In schools this would be a great site for students learning new languages, to create and interpret succinctly their understanding of a lesson, a book, a subject, or to express their feelings/fears/celebrations. I have been hesitant to suggest this tool for the classroom setting or for early childhood as I have not explored the site fully and can see its potential for misuse - but thanks to Meera from toondoo.com who offers to assist anyone wanting to know more about toondoo and education - I have discovered that the site has a "Safe Search" feature. I have not explored this feature but encourage educators to give this online site a whirl. Never cease to learn!!

www.toondoo.com

by SilverSpikes | Make your own at www.toondoo.com

Gever Tulley: 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do

Its been yet another day of bad tv, rain out doors and a bit of a tummy bug. So I turn to Ted Talks. Even the ones I have heard before are worth revisiting - and always there is something new to learn.

When considering children at your school or kindergarten... your children at home... it might be prudent to ask yourself... Do you want cotton-wool kids?

Then why not let them use power tools, sharpen knives, break copywrite laws, play with fire? Gever Tulley is founder of the Tinkering School, and this is his TED talk about 5 Dangerous things you SHOULD let your children do.



Having reheard Gever's ideas and been provoked about his ideas - I still can not help wondering if he has 'left out' some safety ideas... MMMmmmm what do you think?

A Boys Blog

The above blog is an example of what a 10 year old boy can do with a laptop, a blog and an adventure. His six months in Italy is up, but his story sharing skills will be with him forever. What he learned, and what he has shared with you about the Italian way of life, about being adventurous and mostly about his growing and in-depth knowledge of food has become an integral part of who he is. Read about his adventures, and be part of his learning, teaching and development. Leave him a comment on www.mytuscanyoe.blogspot.com

What does Blogging offer children's education?

Once again the teachers of Manaia Kindergarten, along with other Early Childhood teachers who are part of the ICT ECE PL Program, spent a great Saturday presenting and sharing ICT initiatives and resources to 180 ECE teachers from around the North Island. And once again we found it inspiring and motivating with the added element of meeting new people and new theories and ideas.

One resource we like to promote for Early Childhood centres and schools, is blogging. This is a FREE resource and provides children/students with a new medium for self expression, story telling, celebrating achievements (be it final results or showcasing their determination and enjoyment of learning), and to teach others what they themselves have recently learned. Blogging provides a number of positive elements that traditional forms of writing, self expression and teaching are unable to offer.

The first is that blogging provides an authentic audience. It is not just the teacher who assesses children's learning. It is not just the Mums, Dads and Grandparents who smile with pride at their children's progress proudly displayed on the kitchen fridge (although both the afore-mentioned are naturally and vitally important). There is however, a world of bloggers, blog readers, children and educators who are addressed, considered, and valued by children who blog. And the idea that there are people out there and are interested, is easily accepted by the C generation. For young children, their own learning and achievements are the central parts of their world and they naturally accept that their learning and achievements are central parts of your world too!! They are all eager to share accomplishments with you.

I have not noticed children blogging for comments. Checking the blog (or checking with teachers) to see if comments have been left on their posts is not the first port of call when they arrive at Kindergarten. The swings and sandpit still rank high as the activities of choice! However they are stoked, chuffed, overjoyed when a comment is left by a loved one, by friends and actually by anyone who shows an interest in their contributions. Both known and unknown commentators are valued as comments invite children into the global conversation and recognise children's contributions on a level playing field.

Those interested in education, of students achieving goals, for those who value displays of determination - you are given a unique opportunity to encourage, to respond, and generally to contribute to individual children's learning, and to communities of children at schools, at home and at kindergartens around the world.

So my challenge for you is - Have you left a child an encouraging comment on their blog this week?


Manaia Kindergarten
Hunter Park Kindergarten
Geraldine Kindergarten
Whangarei Heads Primary
Parua Bay Primary

The Benefits of Technology in Education

Having recently attended ULearn08 in Christchurch, and presented at this inspiring conference, I again came home excited about the future of education. The possibilities seem to expand with every passing year and I am amazed as I reflect and realise that actually the possibilities for us as a kindergarten continue to expand. Everytime our children assess their own learning, and challenge us with questions and responses to technology, we are amazed by their own expectations and desire for learning. Here are some real life examples:

Digital Dexterity
A few years ago a young boy came to me with his completed work of digital art and my expectation had been that I would either type his name at the bottom, or print the picture and have write his name himself on the paper page. It was with renewed expectation about children's mouse skills that I appreciated how he wrote his name in green digital ink on the digital page. His very matter of fact satisfaction with his newly developed skill paved the way for himself and other children to extend their own possibilities.

Learners as Teachers
One four year old girl had just finished making her PhotoStory3 movie and she wanted to change the colour of her text on the movie. A few runs through that process with the adult teacher and soon this four year old was teaching her friends. When introduced to other programmes they recognised a difference in the programme interface and wanted to explore the slightly different method of changing the colour of the text. The pride in this young girls face as she taught her peers, and her matter of fact satisfaction when her friend also acquired this skill took us all to a higher level of expectation and possibilities.

A young blogger expects Web2.0 capabilites
A four year old leaned out the window at Kindergarten and said "Hey Beverly, I left a comment on the blog" - and she had! This same girl wanted to see on the computer, the school she was to attend when she turned five. When the website was downloaded by an adult teacher, the four year old searched the page and said "Hey, where can I leave a comment?" - unfortunately the school had not yet entered this young girls world of Web2.0. When she finally arrived at school on her 5th birthday, this new entrant handed over the kindergarten business card and said "This is my blog address, you will be needing that!"


What are the benefits?
You might read the above examples and wonder how they answer such a question. These are but small instances highlighting the impact of ICT on children as they assess their own learning, explore with fascination and expectation at what computers can do for them. This expectation goes with them to school. They have a level of expectation about their learning that is best supported through the use of ICT in education. Technology is an invaluable asset when we begin to explore what ICT can do for us and our students, and when we begin to view education as a collaborative, relevant, living opportunity.

Also Read:
What are the benefits of Technology in Education? Practical processes children use when engaging with technology including a list of links to kindergartens and schools who blog about their technology learning and their open exploration of education in all areas.

The Power of Questioning in ECE

Questioning - Surfing or Scuba Diving?
A workshop by Mary-Anne Murphy - Educational Facilitator
#ULearn08 - Christchurch.

What?
Why?
Who?
Where?
When
How?

Questioning is important because it helps us understand issues more deeply. It indicates that we have a level of curiosity about an issue and also helps to stimulate curiosity in others. Questioning promotes conversation and can take conversations to a new and deeper level. Questioning helps us to find an answer or address a curiousity... The importance of questioning is instictive in 2-3yr olds who start off life after establishing the words Mum, Dad, and various other vital labels, by asking "what's that?" and then deepening their questioning to ask "Why?"

The profile of a good questioner is someone who has a good level of curiosity and above all is prepared to take risks. They need a certain level of patience and persistance so that they are able to continue to ask their questions again and again until they are heard, or to be able to modify their questions so that they are understood.

The early years is a great time to encourage children's questioning. But it can also be a time that is so easy to discourage questioning. The 2yr old who asks "WHY?" until the only answer you can find is because if you believed in a God - is because God decided it would be so - may start to be ignored when asking questions.

So how do we encourage questioning in a manageable why for such young children? DO WE have to answer their questions with correct answers to encourage their questioning style - or at this particular age could this not lead rather to parents, teachers and caregivers going insane and resulting in a discouragement of questioning? Do they need us to have an answer to every question? What if we asked the children their ideas to the questions they ask? We might see some astonishing insights into the way our children see the world. Would it be better to correct their insights and theories or would we encourage a development of their questioning techniques if we let them work on their theories over time? I don't believe that we have to find and give the answers immediately. I believe it is much more fun to involve children in seeking the answers to their questions and I believe this would show children that we take their questions seriously and respect them for asking their questions.

Children do not always ask questions at times that suit our timetables, or home schedules. Maybe it would be good to have a place in our classrooms and homes where children can 'park' their questions. These questions can then be addressed over time and given the time to address them. This way we would be saying to children that we are listening and that there a no wrong/bad questions - they are all valid and together we can look for the answers.



What makes a good question?
Open ended question - one that requires more than one word answers
Relevant
Takes you to another level, another question
Acknowledging that in certain context closed questions are important.

Inspiring and developing questioning... (activity)
Give the answer - " the answer is 'tree' - what is the question?"

Questioning relationship
child <-> adult <-> child <-> child


Maybe encourage the children to create our ICT survey?

Return to NZ - Still connected to the network

What a fantastic experience I had in Italy and the Uk with my family. It was great to see we were still able to pick up where we left off - all together. Our physical network has been made stronger and we are still connected - emailing, skyping, sharing blogs. They are not that far away...

One thing I noticed while chatting late at night with my neice and interacting with my nephew, being involved in his correspondence schooling - is that technology in education is not a theory! It is real, it is happening, and the children are involved, engaged and using the technology in anyway they can.

Today I am sitting in the ULearn08 Christchurch auditorium. What I saw in my immediate family in Italy and the UK - is being talked about here in New Zealand in this keynote presentation. My nieces 14yrs and 16yrs are part of the technology network. I wander what guidance they have had to use these networks to create networks, to help them put their best foot forward in the social online globe, how are they using this technology to learn, grow, share, colaborate, prepare. I am hugely impressed by their abilities with technology - my hope is that their teachers guide them in a trustworthy way to gain the best for them. I am also incredibly proud of my 10year old nephew who is making fantastic leaps forward in his use of technology, putting his best work online, sharing his knowledge with others, networking with others in the online New Zealand correspondence community, extending his community by responding to the professionals who have been inspired by his blog, knowledge, and leadership in the online world of education... he is putting his best foot forward and creating his learning community.

Ken Robinson

This talk from Ken Robinson may be a few years old - but definitely a good watch. What seems like an obvious way forward for education, seems to be a new idea for so many. Sir Ken Robinson, doesn't so much give a definitive view on what education should look like, but rather poses some reflective questions about education today. I have felt for some time that early childhood is on a good road. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the school system followed the lead of Early Childhood Education, by following children's interests, strengths and the tools that come so naturally to them, as a vehicle to teach them many of life's necessities. And along the way wouldn't children develop a passion for learning, because they are learning about things that interest them. And wouldn't it be great if assessment did not consist of a hall filled with rows of desks, shuffling papers, tension, stress, and a pass or fail. But rather wouldn't it be great if children could be encouraged through positive assessment practices, and scaffolded by teachers who are passionate because there are sharing their strengths and interests. Because isn't it that which is important - the knowledge, skill and passion TO LEARN - and not the actual data we throw at them? Because the data we feed them today, will probably not be the data they need for tomorrow...

Here's Ken Robinson's take from TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design)

Also check out Ken Robinson's views on National Standards