iPads for All

Kindergartener’s Getting iPads (April 8, 2011)

www.cnn.com Accessed: May 8, 2011

Topic: Kindergarteners in Maine will be getting their own iPads.

Summary: Kindergarteners will be given an iPad to use for assistance in learning to read, learning letters and alphabet sounds, and in other ways. The school district will be paying for these as learning devices.

Intended audience: General Public

Key Points:

• Kindergarteners will use iPads to aid in regular learning activities.
• The school board voted unanimously to approve the purchase of iPad 2s at $475 per iPad
• The idea is contentious. There are people who strongly support it and others who don’t.

Relevance: I am torn on this. I think that iPads and other types of technology can be great teaching tools. It’s awesome to see the kids engaged and interested in learning things that are often presented as tedious/boring worksheets but on the other hand I struggle with the idea of plugging kids in at school when they are plugged in so much at home. I think that the iPads could be used as a tool, but I really don’t think it’s necessary to purchase one for every 5 year old. Why not just get a handful for each classroom?

Just Let the Children Play!

“Why Preschool Shouldn’t Be Like School” by Alison Gopnik
Slate, Posted: March 16, 2011, Accessed: April 12, 2011

Topic: Play based exploration vs. direct instruction for early childhood education

Summary: The article talks about some studies and experiments with 4-year olds that point towards exploration and play as effective ways to “teach” young children.

Intended audience: Educators, Parents

Key Points:

• Play based exploration allows children to be more creative and learn more
• Direct instruction squashes creativity and scientific thinking

Relevance: This touches on a lot of the subjects we have talked about in Ed Psych. It also mentions NCLB and the requirement of federally funded preschools to go towards a curriculum based on direct instruction to get results for standardized tests.

Preschool Learning

Why Preschool Shouldn't Be Like School
Alison Gopnik

Slate.com
March 16, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/us/26charter.html?ref=education

Topic: Research shows preschools should avoid direct instruction style of education.

New research shows that teaching kids more and more, at ever-younger ages, may backfire.

Key Points: Studies provide scientific support for the intuitions many teachers have had all along: Direct instruction really can limit young children's learning. Teaching is a very effective way to get children to learn something specific. But it also makes children less likely to discover unexpected information and to draw unexpected conclusions.

Relevance: More fodder for the very interesting and imprecise science of early childhood learning and education psychology.

Gender identities in the ECE classroom

"Playing with Gender" by Ann Pelo

Rethinking Schools, Fall 2005

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/20_01/gend201.shtml

accessed 3/5/2011

Summary: Teachers at a Seattle preschool work on understanding their own identities, and how those shape their ongoing work into understanding the backgrounds of their students. Pelo talks a lot about incidences of play in which the very young children are clearly exploring gender roles and identities, and it is interesting to note (especially after today's conference) that the students are doing it in the context of an environment in which they haven't yet been exposed enough to think of what they are doing as wrong, whether because it isn't "manly" or "womanly" enough, or because it is somehow otherwise inappropriate. It is an exciting opportunity to take advantage of "teaching moments" that the children are themselves creating.

Key Points:

• the school takes a positive view of physically involved play, and this seems to help create a freer environment in which the kids can dress each other up or otherwise explore their identities through interaction
• Pelo lists a handful of incredible utterances from her young students, including words that indicate a playful contemplation of how society determines that a boy is a boy, and a girl a girl
• the teachers at the school all work hard, cooperatively, to better understand themselves and their students, and how to help guide and educate these very young children
• given even very "simple" play activities among students, a discerning educator can draw out a wealth of material to prompt discussion and contemplation among her colleagues

Audience: general public, ECE educators interested in ideas in this area

Relevance: This is a big one! The article touches on all sorts of things that have come up in our class discussions, particularly in School and Society-- but also in Inquiry, and even in today's conference! The teachers at Pelo's school are tackling the same sorts of issues that Anita is asking us to think about: how does my culture shape the lens through which I view and teach my students? How might their own backgrounds shape their lenses? How can I work to educate everyone to our best abilities not in spite of, but while embracing these differences? The team she put together is working on what I think could be called an action research project, and as is the nature of action research (at least in my still-forming understanding of it), their conclusions are continuously updated; it is an ongoing assessment of their own practices and environment. Although the article ostensibly focuses on the forming gender identity roles of their preschoolers (and how fascinatingly fluid those are), she tackles much more than that. I'm going to stop writing because this is already too long, but I highly recommend this article.