While getting a DVD ready to play on my lap top children slowly gathered around.
“What you doing?” A asked,
“I’m going to play a Dora DVD on the lap top, have you watched any shows or videos on a lap top before?”,
“No, but I have a Dora video at home I watch on my TV” A replied.
“Has anyone here seen a lap top before?” I asked.
J said “yeah it’s a puter, aye”.
The other four children did not respond.
The DVD was about Dora and friends helping Santa deliver presents to children around the world. As the video played several more children gathered around the lap top. On several occasions I had to ask and remind children who were sitting up near the lap top to sit down on their bottoms so that those sitting on chairs behind them could also watch the DVD. The children were very attentive and focused in on the show.
When the DVD finished L asked me where Santa was, right now. I told her that he was at the South Pole getting presents ready for Christmas.
"Santa brings me lots of presents and we give him cake too" said L.
D joined the discussion and mentioned how he and his brother had received a water slide as a Christmas present and how much fun it was. He also mentioned how he, his brother and mum had gone and brought his dad a present, not for Christmas , but for his birthday which was last week.
I brought my lap top into the centre so that I could introduce to the children a new means of technology that they were not yet familiar with. There are no computers or laptops accessible for the children at my centre. Te Whariki acknowledges technology as a legitimate means of global reform and recognises educational foundations that support technology, require children to acquire a range of skills they need as lifelong learners (Ministry of Education, 1996). Playing the Dora DVD had been prompted by observations of children taking an interest of Dora in books held in the centre library. I also thought the educational approaches embedded within Dora the explorer adventures were also appropriate and fun. “Cartoons and comics are not only creative in nature, they also provide the enabling environment that allows children to explore and play without restraint” (Alaba, 2007).
Although there was some disruption caused by children’s standing in front of the table it was also an opportunity to remind children of common ground rules in which, when abided by, encourage children to want to learn and play alongside each other (MoE, 1996).
Children were able to make links with family and the home through the playing of the DVD in the lap top. I think this also contributed to their ability to remain attentive and focused. “connecting links between the early childhood education setting and other settings that relate to the child, such as home, or parent’s workplaces contribute to children’s development” (MoE, 1996, p.56).
I will add a lap top or computer to our centre wish list and keep my fingers crossed. In the meantime I will continue to share my laptop with the children because I think they will enjoy it and because of the potential learning to be experienced.
