Do you want to use new technologies in preschool?
Here’s a simple and engaging way to boost your children’s relevant use of everyday new technologies in preschool without too much screen-time.
New technologies in preschool guidelines don’t have to pose a big problem in your daily learning program because they don’t always equate with computers. Have you tried making short sound recordings on your mobile phone?
Take them for a listening walk
Try this idea – take one or two children on a listening walk and record some interesting sounds. Right now I can hear a magpie caroling just outside, it’s a very distinctive sound and quite beautiful. To discover your regular bird co-habitants, consciously tune in and listen to your environment every time you are outside with the children and take mental notes of what bird or birds you always hear.
Before you try audio recording with the 4 and 5 year olds, practise making a short sound recording using the voice memo app that came with your phone or else download something like ‘Recorder’ app. A recording of 5-10 seconds is plenty.
Train them to use the sound recorder on your phone
When you are satisfied that the results you are getting are clear, go inside and share your recording with other adults or children. Ask them to guess what made the sounds. Give those eyes a rest and use ears instead.
Now teach one or two children at a time how to make short sound recordings on your phone. Once they are skillful, let them roam them outside for a recording session.
When they come back to share what they have made, your film-crew ‘soundie’ children will probably love to make some drawings, paintings or 3-d artworks to match their sounds. You could even get out some instruments and create a piece of music based on your original sound and why not record that as well.
Make a multimedia presentation to share
Download the sounds (and musical composition) onto your computer, make a digital image of the artwork and find a program such as Powerpoint that lets you and your children put sounds to images. Now they are working in multimedia and your new technologies are engaging your children in brand new ways.
Your children will certainly feel proud when they share their multimedia artwork with their extended families and friends. If you really want the extended journey into new technologies, let them help you upload their presentation and show their parents and extended families where to access their artworks from their homes.
