ALL IN ONE

All in one

I have a little something which I like to call my all in one. It tells me the time; it plays music takes pictures, records videos, keeps appointments and takes notes and most of all it keeps me in touch with people I love. This little all in one device is my trusty cell phone and yes I take it to work with me and yes I keep it in my pocket.

Oh no…I can only imagine what some of you are thinking!!!

But don’t worry, my phone is always on silent and I don’t answer any calls or txt msgs unless I am on my break, non-contact time or in a place where I am able to do so. Like the toilet…eeewwwhhhh! Again don’t worry it is after I have finished my business and washed my hands, I just stand in the toilet for an extra 30 seconds so I am able to reply quickly to a text. SShhhhh!

Why I love this little device is so obvious to see, it fits into my pocket and whenever I am in need of capturing that amazing moment out comes the all in one and snap, I have a picture.

Cameras are fine cameras are great but you don’t always have it on you and sometimes you can’t leave your designated area to go get it and by the time you’ve called out to someone to either relieve you so you can go get the camera or ask someone to bring it to you…the moments gone! Forever!

So that is one of the many great things of the cell phone.

Another wonderful trait is being able to play music. The children love it, they choose a song press play and they begin to dance no matter where it is they are standing even though the volume isn’t very loud.  Just like my ipad this is another device I trust the children with, if they want to listen to some music and if they ask nicely I will let them turn some music on and it doesn’t surprise me the way they are able to find their way to the right place on my cell phone. They probably know how to work it better than me.

Almost everybody has a cell phone and these kids are obviously exposed to them at home. The reality is they are going to grow up and use one too but theirs will be way more advanced than the ones we have today stressing the importance of equipping children with the knowledge they will need in being computer or technology literate. Te Whāriki highlights the importance of teaching children about the world and providing them with opportunities to make discoveries and acquire new skills (Ministry of education, 1996) so what I am getting from this is that it is okay to let the children at my centre interact with my cell phone because it is part of the ever changing world. 

The children also like to use it to take pictures and record videos of themselves with their friends or of anything at all around the centre and they also like to look at the photos I have of my children stored on my phone and really enjoy looking at them. We tend to talk about my children as they ask who so and so is and we can sometimes converse for what seems like forever about the people in my photos or people in their family or to the types of cell phones their parents have. “My mum has a iPhone a yellow one and it has movies on it and a game” these were actual words from a 3 year old in my centre. I immediately thought “Huh a yellow iPhone, he must be making it up” but no the very next day his mum came in with her iPhone and guess what it wasn’t yellow but it had a yellow protector case.

Because of my cell phone I was able to learn something new about his mum making those connections between home and centre (Ministry of education, 1996). He openly shared with me that his mum had a yellow iPhone and the types of things his mums iPhone could do. This told me that he had knowledge and familiarity with this form of technology. I don’t have an iPhone but my cell phone is pretty neat but he related our two phones together and thinks that all cell phones are iPhones which I thought was pretty cute reminding me of my children who think all meat is chicken. What got me thinking here though was is it my job to tell him that not all cell phones are iPhones but I decided it was too complicated even for me.

I do understand that there are ethics involved as to what is being done with pictures taken on a cell phone but at the end of the day both my camera and cell phone come home with me. I am lucky that I am able to use my own camera and that I am trusted in doing so and the same with my cell phone. But I must stress with utmost importance that all the images and videos are shared and documented with the other staff and when the purpose for them like learning stories etc is no longer needed they are deleted.

The importance of this discussion here is recognising how much children actually know about technology and their uses. The children I work with will either say “Can I take a picture on your phone” or” Can I listen to some music” or “Can I play a game”. At their young ages they already know how many uses a cell phone has and how to use them. When I look back at my younger days as a small girl and think of the things I was good at or knew how to operate the only things that come to my mind are remote control cars walkie talkies and tv remotes. I know mums who give their cell phones to their babies to play with or should I say chew on and the first thing I say is “be careful she might drop it” when the correct thing to say would be “Is it safe to put in her mouth”. The point I’m trying to make here is how much we expose children to technology without even knowing it and that children will know what a cell phone is before they can speak.

To a lot of people a cell phone is simply just another phone and once upon a time it was just another phone. The only thing you could do on it was call someone and they were so big you couldn’t actually fit in your pocket. Over time newer models with more functions came out such as the text messaging and then later on ringtones and inbuilt cameras and now internet browsing and so on but the list goes on. Times are changing and technology is forever evolving and so has the cell phone and what teachers need to do is help children in their care become familiar with the technology so when it does change which it will, children will be prepared and you could call this scaffolding of some sort scaffolding them for them for the future (McNaughton and Williams,2009).

What’s most important in this reflection is the many uses and functions a cell phone has which can be of use to a teacher who is much older than 15. I don’t use my cell phone to teach children how to text. I don’t use my cell phone to let children call their friends. I use my cell phone as a tool, as a resource just like any other piece of technology and when you look at it that way I’m the one still in control and supervising the children who are using it so they are safe just like I will when my children get their very first cell phone. William Ferriter wrote an article on  cell phones as teaching tools for students at high school and of the many benefits they provided for him as teacher and for his students  but I found that what he was saying could relate to early childhood teachers as well. Ferriter shares the following

“Embracing cell phones in schools is a logical step. Although the risks are real, the rewards are great—and not as hard to achieve as you might think. Think of the money we saved! Using nothing more than the tools that the majority of students brought to school every day, we'd successfully replaced dictionaries, timers, and digital cameras—resources my principal would have loved to provide for every classroom, but couldn't afford in tight budget times” (Ferriter, 2010).

Now I must sound like a bit of a hypocrite because in my last reflection I brag on about how I don’t want my children to have a cell phone until at least 15. That is still true but I as a teacher know that not all parents are going to be like me and wait till their children are that age before they buy them one, some may wait till they are even older most likely like a lot of children I know will have one while they are at intermediate but it is that parents’ choice. What can be stressed here is how young children can be brainwashed from an early age to accept technology and I feel it is my duty to make sure children in my care are able to learn about technology in a safe and caring environment provided by me.

I  do hope that by the time these small children are old enough to have a cell phone of their own that they will be responsible with them and appreciate the many benefits and uses technology provides just like I do.

REFERENCES

McNaughton, G., & Williams, G.  (2009). Techniques for teaching young children: Choices in theory and practice (3^rd ed.). Melbourne,Vic.: Addison Wesley Longman.

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki, he whaariki mätauranga mo nga mokopuna ö Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

Ferriter, Wi. (2010) Educational leadership: Cellphones as teaching tools. Retireved August 2011 from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct10/vol68/num02/Cell-Phones-as-Teaching-Tools.aspx