Today a new resource was brought out for the children to play with, a large outdoor xylophone. It has a metal frame, steel tubes as the musical bars, a wooden rod to hit the bars with and five song sheets. The steel tubes are colour coded like the song sheets to show how you can play the songs. The teacher modelled for the children how to look at the song sheet and see the colours then match those to what you hit on the bars. The children had a great time with this, firstly hitting the bars randomly then two girls played it together, one telling the other which colours to hit so they could create a song and the other hitting the bars then they would swap. “We can play music” one of them said, very proud of herself.
I would never have looked at this piece of equipment and attached the word “technology” to it. I have always considered technology to be digital and mostly electrical because this is how the media portrays it. If you see something new that has been created, it is said to have the “latest technology” and it is mostly a new television, iPod or cell phone. You never hear a pen or a clothes peg referred to like this. Smorti (1999) defines technology as helping people and solving problems so this definition definitely fits with a pen and a clothes peg. When looking at the xylophone I see it helps children to develop the skill of playing a musical instrument. It is quite a skill to be able to read the colour coded song and match that information to playing it on the bars below and trying to keep the tune.
I also thought about this instrument relating to technology by the way it was made. Traditionally, these were made out of willow wood tied onto bundles of straw and now they have evolved to large steel instruments with song charts attached and colour coded steel bars. Ministry of Education (2007) talks about technology being about practical resources being used to create products and steel may not have been a practical or affordable resource to use in the past to create a musical instrument out of.
When looking at children’s learning and development through the use of this technology, I saw children working and learning together, I recognised them gaining a new skill and I saw their excitement and pride in themselves at being able to do this. Ministry of Education (1996) states through technology children experience solving problems together and understanding how different technologies can help themselves and others. The children who were playing on the xylophone were working together to play the instrument and helping each other by reading out the colours that needed to be hit next to create the tune. This instrument also encouraged relationship building and social skills as the children worked out it was
Hey Amanda :)
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this blog as it was quite nice to hear about something different, (something that you wouldnt think is technology). I understand when you say you thought technology was things like phones, camera's and computers. I felt the same. After reading a few of these blogs I have gained a better understanding of what technology can be, it can be anything created.
I think it is really nice hearing that the children developed an understanding of making music, teaching one another, using ako, responsive and reciprocal learning. I also really liked how you all togther learnt about how the instrument was made with straw ect.
Smorti (1999) suggests that technology is a great way to solve problems, which in this case is, because children are following colours and making music. She also states that technology is a creative and purposeful activity aimed at meeting needs and different opportunities through the development of products, (pg.5).
This was a good learning activity for the children as well as fun! I bet the musical songs were great :)
From Jess! x
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ReplyDeleteHey Amanda!
ReplyDeleteAnother great blog! After building my understanding of what technology was, I can really see how this experience fits in to it.
Throughout this post you were describing the children as being proud and having a sense of pride within themselves when they used this piece of technology. This clearly demonstrates how technology can have such a positive effect on children’s learning and development as it supports their self-confidence and well-being (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.94).
Over these couple of years that we have been studying it has almost been drilled in us that young children soak in all the experiences that they take part in and Brownlee (2007, p.8) describes it perfectly, by saying that children “are like little sponges. They soak in all that is going on around them; with all of their senses...What they soak in will be the raw material from which they will draw when they are creating.” I believe it is simple experiences like this that the children benefit the most from, they will remember the feeling of pride and how good it feels to work together to accomplish something beautiful.
This is a prime example of how curtain technologies such as television’s, iPads, DVD’s and computers that we often use as teaching and learning tools which are beneficial for children’s learning and development if used properly, cannot always provide children with those rich experiences that use all of their senses (Brownlee, 2007).
Just something to think about :)
Hey amanda
ReplyDeleteI also would have never associated a xlyophone with technology, but after reading you blog and our learning from class its amasing to find how many differnt objects can come under the technology umbrella.
The New Zealand Curricullum states that "Technology is associated with the transformation of energy, information, and materials" (2007, pg32). I can relate this your xylophone as i can see how the materials used to make it have been transformed from steel into a purposeful object to help create music, and also the transformation of energy from hitting the bars with the rod forming the musical notes.
What a cool thing to have at your kindy!!!
Chloe
Amanda, I liked reading your reflection! I wouldn’t have seen this piece of equipment as technology, but like you said it is a lot different now than it used to be.
ReplyDeletePossibly you could have extended on the children’s learning by providing similar instruments so more than two children could be involved. I also feel it would have been great for the children too if you read the music colours to them, so they could focus on exploring the new resource. After they became familiar with it, encouraged them to use their literacy skills, and hand/eye coordination to read and play the colours, before the teacher modelled the correct way to use it.
Exploration is great for the children to make discoveries about a new object (Ministry of education, 1996), and Smorti (1999) believes “technology is also a creative and purposeful activity” (p.5).
cool post!
Chanelle :)
When you mentioned this piece of outdoor equipment in class I could see how you might think that it was not technology. I have to totally agree with your thoughts on how this would not be technology. Once I read further into your reflection I could see that the readings you had done answered my questions as to how this piece of equipment can be considered as technology.
ReplyDeleteI found that reading the New Zealand Curriculum (2007) they say “the curriculum encourages all students to reflect on their own learning process and learn how to learn” (pg.9) you mentioned that you and your teachers modelled first how to use the outdoor xylophone and the children then copied and learnt from each other. This process is giving the children a chance to learn for themselves by watching and then trying for themselves and they would also learn off each other.
I must find out how to get one of these, they sound like such a cool piece of outdoor equipment.