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Researching imaginative play with the addition of ICTs has been a fascinating journey. Videoing was a main source of data collection and I believe it was important for the children to have the opportunity of using the technology as and when they wanted to build on their interests. The cameras were used most days, for different purposes. E and S liked to use software to make movies of their play and both of these children incorporated the digital still camera into their play. J liked all technology, using both cameras regularly, he drew pictures on Kidpix and incorporated these into the tiger movie and I helped him to make short movies from his photos. These movies were of trees, feet, footage turned upside down as he tried to master the camera but his enthusiasm, interest and perseverance were obvious. Z was a younger child and liked to take photos of his trucks. I showed him how he could make a slide show to share with his friends and also to use the photos as a background in Kidpix and enhance them using the tools available. R used technology to build on her interest of Barbie. The children found using the video camera difficult. I do not think that one term is enough to become familiar with it, but like all tools being used by young children, there needs to be time to play and have fun with it. Children learn about technology by watching others or being shown the possibilities and as emergent technology teachers we need to introduce children to new applications. The children were familiar with being filmed and were happy for me to video their play, we had discussed the possibility of making movies and they were keen to be the actors. Tiger play unfolded each day and became more complex as time passed. At first tigers were roaring, chasing and scratching but more children became involved and tigers were making cages and caves and were sleeping and eating. The children became creative in several ways, pictures were drawn to incorporate into movies and the use of props was creative as well. This project has been meaningful to the children, it gave them an opportunity to be in control of their learning. It offered opportunities to work with others and to work with ideas. Their imaginations were engaged, and they looked playfully at different ways to do things. Children were more focused and they stayed in role for longer periods of time. I am writing my research report this term and hope to have a draft completed by mid November. At present I am at CORE in Christchurch, ULearn conference is also this month, which I will be presenting at.

We live work and play in communities. Often we can achieve together what we can not achieve alone. By encouraging children to work together they can learn from each other, share ideas and opinions, solve problems, negotiate resolutions, learn to compromise and develop confidence in a supportive environment. “Cooperative” is one of the attributes of meaningful learning as outlined by(Jonassen, Peck, & Wilson, 1999). According to (Pramling-Samulsson) there are three ways of looking at peer cooperation. 1. Peer Tutoring : One child is the expert in a certain area and tutors the other child novice. 2. Co-operative learning: Children working in a structured cooperative group learning situation. 3. Peer Collaboration: Children of similar or equal ability working together to solve a problem. In the making of the resources for my pilot and case study I saw instances of these three types of cooperation and collaboration at work. In the pilot study the children worked in groups to take the photographs for the first digital book about “Our First School Days.” They worked in groups learning the basics of using the camera and for the actual day of the photo shoot. Assisting adults noticed how the children took turns, were cooperative with the photographer and helped each other with reminders about putting the cord around the hand and turning the button to take and view a photo. Although the children worked together to achieve a group outcome for the main resources of the case study, they worked individually on the computers to construct their part of that resource. During this time there were some children who began to show ability in using the technology very efficiently. They became “self appointed tutors.” They would willingly share their knowledge with other children who needed assistance giving verbal instructions and pointing at the screen. There were also many instances observed in the video and other data collections of children talking about their work and giving each other feedback. Last Friday the class made another resource of a different kind. They had been studying “Keeping Ourselves Healthy,” and had visited the Life Education Trust caravan. The task was to make a set of posters which could be displayed on the wall and other parts of the school to remind people about simple health rules. The children were going to work with partners to make the poster. This was the first time the children had worked with a partner to produce a resource and it was exciting to see them approach the task and the way they worked to complete it. The children first needed to decide what concept of healthy living they wanted to show. They worked in pairs with a camera to take photos of that idea, e.g. healthy food from their lunch boxes. They worked together to construct a caption to go with their posters and sitting side by side they wrote the caption in their own writing books. There was more opportunity here for discussion of words and spelling. It was interesting to see them so involved in this task. The next step was for the children to work in the ICT suite to make their poster using a Power Point slide. I used Power Point because they are already familiar with this software. I showed them how to insert their photos, insert their captions and put in a background colour. This entailed a number of steps; probably more than I would give this age in one go, and then I let them go to it. Both the classroom teacher and I were amazed and delighted at how well the children worked together. They used their joint knowledge to solve many little problems. There was occasional need for teacher input and it was very pleasantly manageable. The noise level was buzzy but very focused. Every group had completed the activity within approximately thirty minutes. I heard children discussing their favourite colours for the background and agreeing on a colour. While often in each pair there seemed to be one more able child it was also obvious that the other child in the pair had different knowledge which enabled the job to be done. The children showed delight in their achievement. They were able to see their work printed and ready for display before they went home. I believe that before the children could work so well together they needed the opportunity of exploring and working on the technology on their own. By this stage the children are confident in applying many basic skills. I also think there is a place for children to construct their very own piece of work as they did in the first resources. The pride and pleasure they showed in that work was very apparent. However I do believe that technology lends it self to collaborative learning opportunities and I will be presenting more of these opportunities to young children. Jonassen, D., Peck, K., & Wilson, B. (1999). Learning with technology: A constructivist perspective: Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill. Pramling-Samuelsson, I. Collaboration and cooperation. CHAT, from file http:www.ioe.ac.uk/cdl/CHAT/chatcom1.htm

newton-wade@xtra.co.nz

With Ulearn fast approaching, we efellows are all working hard to show that what we learned in our presentation workshops has had an impact on how we present our findings.  However I find myself becoming a little anxious about my 'performance'.  If you are in Auckland you might like to come to my Ulearn practice session. Just email me and I will send you the details. - be prepared to be tied up in knots!! - "Knots!" you say, "what has that got to do with teachers and New Entrants?" - you'll have to come along and find out. 

Look forward to seeing you. 

This term I have clarified my draft research plan, focusing on complexity of learning when ICTs are included in imaginary play. The overall themes I will be looking at will be planning, co-operation and language. Being back in the Kindergarten has shown imaginary play to be in full force with my case study children. Watching themselves on video is certainly adding to their excitement and they are keen to build on these experiences, encouraging a lot of discussion. At present they are tigers, super heroes, mums and dads. Who knows what they may be tomorrow?

Case Study Term two was very busy yet again with the implementation of my case study. I worked with the Classroom teacher to plan a unit of work in which children would explore and develop an awareness of the rich language in Lynley Dodd’s books. We hoped that the children would learn to use this language in their written and oral language. As part of the study children would use ICTs to construct resources to support their learning in literacy. During the term the children were involved in making three resources. • The first activity planned was to use ICTs to produce a resource which would involve children drawing and animating an animal character from the books and constructing a sentence using some of the rich language they had experienced. The children took photos for their background and this was a chance for them to practice the skills learnt in the pilot study. They also orally recorded their caption. Slide 1: This is an example of one of the animated slides. The second activity was to further explore the language looking closely at how a story is sequenced. We examined the way in which an author drafts and edits a story. For this we had an excellent video resource from the national library which explains how Lynley Dodd creates her books. We were to make a resource in which the children were going to retell the story of “The Smallest Turtle”. The children used ArtRage to paint their backgrounds. They used Paint to draw their turtles and other characters from the book and animated the characters from the story using Power Point. We worked collaboratively to retell the story using rich language and the children recorded the text and made oral recordings. The book was printed in hard copy and laminated and used in the literacy programme as a sequencing activity. Slide 3: This is a slide from The Smallest Turtle. Slide 4: The resource has been laminated and is used as a sequencing activity. The third activity was to build on the previous experiences. The children each made their own six page book about a topic of their own choice using PowerPoint. They used a story board to plan their book and Paint to draw their pictures. They recorded their stories both orally and in written form. Slide 5: Example of story board and slide of individual PowerPoint book. Before we made the resources the children were exposed to a large number of Lynley Dodd’s picture books. The classroom teacher and the children made character studies of the animals. The children also wrote about the animals in their independent writing time. All the resources have been printed in hard copy. The collaborative class books are in the class library. The children’s own books have been printed and made available as a class treasure box for reading. All the resources are available as an electronic library both on CD and the shared network. At the completion of the resources each child took a CD home to share with his or her parents. As part of my research I am interested in whether parents feel such resources benefit home/ school communication and whether they can be used to support their child in learning. I have continued to read and have found among others material by John Siraj-Blatchford very useful. During Term two I collected data. Although I was working with the whole class my case study focused on six children and my data is largely centred on them. I videoed lessons and the classroom teacher made observations. I had informal interviews with the six children who form the case study group. I have written a reflective journal after each lesson. I will be surveying the parents early this term. This term I will be analyzing the data looking for indicators of meaningful learning. In my data gathering, I have looked at the five attributes for meaningful learning as outlined by (Jonassen, Peck, & Wilson, 1999) and have used these to base my indicators on, considering the young age of the children I work with. The five attributes are interdependent and so in looking for the presence of one attribute I might have also found another. These attributes are Active, Constructive, Intentional, Authentic and Collaborative. These are the indicators I would be looking for to see evidence of the attributes. • Active: Interaction of children between each other and assisting adults and the interaction of children with the environment such as computers, digital cameras, books and storyboards. I noticed as the skills developed and children became more independent they displayed high levels of engagement. • Constructive: Prior learning transferred to new learning seen through the development of skills and verbal explanations and the final products. I noticed that the skills built on each other. The work children did in constructing the initial resource gave them the basis for acquiring the skills for the next resource. The children had the scaffolding necessary for the new learning. They were immersed in the rich language of Lynley Dodd’s books and were then able to transfer this learning to their own resources. • Intentional: Children articulating the learning intentions and showing understanding of the learning activity. Children showing signs of success and delight at achieving the learning goal and the actual work. I noticed many signs of delight and satisfaction at achieving goals. The work output reflected the achievement of learning intentions. • Authentic: Children showing that the activity is contextual and complex through high participation and ownership. The children showed enthusiasm towards the activities and a number of children sought to continue their work at other times. • Collaborative: Children cooperating in the learning activity through, explaining, modeling and helping. Children cooperatively using the resources. As the term progressed I began to see more and more cooperative learning. Sometimes it was discussion during the making of the resource. At other times it was simply sharing a resource together. As children became more skilled and confident in using the software they would become tutors for those children who needed help. This has real impacts for classroom management. I have almost completed my data gathering. As well as looking at what meaningful learning occurs when children create resources I am also looking at the learning outcomes when children use the resources at school and at home and whether parents feel more informed about their child’s learning. I have surveyed the parents regarding this and will have informal interviews with my case study children’s parents early this term. This term will be largely spent on data analysis. Although I have noted my initial observations and “gut feelings” I will be looking for the evidence to back these suppositions. I have felt privileged to work with this group of children and their teacher and although I have always believed that young kids “can do” it was fascinating to have the time to observe them closely without all the other issues a classroom teacher has to deal with. I was struck with the ability of these young children to follow quite complex instructions to achieve a task such as animating an object or inserting a Paint picture as a background. They apply themselves to technology as if it is no big deal, the same way children of the past used a blackboard and chalk. They appeared to enjoy the multimedia aspect of ICT resources and being able to share their work with parents. I believe that the activities that I undertook with this class can be achieved as part of the classroom programme but the time taken to complete them may be longer. I hope that my findings may add another piece to the jigsaw of research regarding the use of ICTs to support learning for young children. I also hope that teachers of young children will have faith that young children “can do” providing they have the appropriate support and will implement the use of ICTs to support learning. I will share examples of my work with the learning community. Jonassen, D., Peck, K., & Wilson, B. (1999). Learning with technology: A constructivist perspective.Upper Saddle River NJ: Merrill.

I will be presenting the results of my research at the ULearn conference 25th - 27th September in Breakout 7 and also co-presenting a workshop on using interactive whiteboards (ACTIVboard) for reading and language in Breakout 5. I will also be around on the Ministry and HP stands at lunchtimes during the conference so if you want to talk about the fellowship or inquiry learning catch me there.

After the conference I will be posting my research results to my website www.inquiringmind.co.nz so keep a look out for that near the end of September.

My Inquiry Website www.inquiringmind.co.nz is now up and running. It contains lots of information and resources relating to inquiring learning. As I finish analysing the data from my research in the next few weeks I will be adding to the page. I welcome any feedback you might have - what you like and what you would like to see changed or added.

I am not sure why the previous blog entry looks like a poem, but it makes rather difficult reading!  I will try to get it fixed in the next day or two!  Technology: exciting, challenging, UNPREDICTABLE!!!

I have to confess that when we were told that one of the responsibilities of being an e-fellow was to have a blogsite, I cringed a little! The few that I had chanced on in my wanderings over the net seemed a little self-indulgent! However I am now coming to realise what a great forum a blogsite can be for exchanging ideas, ‘meeting’ people with interesting and thought provoking ideas and gathering information – I am becoming a blog junkie!! I have been a bit of a ‘lurker’ – creeping unnoticed into rooms, sitting at the back, making (mental) comment, but deliberately keeping a low profile. This e-fellowship year is changing all that. I am over-indulging in all manner of cyber contact, from online conferences, to comments on other people’s blogs. (I feel rather like the chap in the Mitre 10 advertisement who has ‘overindulged’ in hardware – my relationship with my laptop has become somewhat intoxicating!) The process of ‘doing’ research is an interesting one – get the proposal approved, gather data, analyse it, write up the findings. Simple! Well, not quite so simple. After writing up my research proposal and getting ethics approval, I launched into gathering the data according to my carefully designed plan. – The first hurdle: one of the new entrant classes I had intended to use in my study had filled up more quickly than expected. I would need to very quickly find another school and teacher who would agree to participate in my study. This I managed and in fact now have three schools: decile 1 school in south Auckland, decile 5 west Auckland, and decile 9 central city school. So I went, gathering data along the way. The second hurdle: disappearing children. Several children in the study moved to new schools after the initial interview. I had to find new children very quickly as the first phase of interviewing needed to happen before the child started school and phase 2 took place after the child had been at school about 6 weeks. My timeframe was beginning to look a little shakey! The third hurdle: (by now I am developing the hurdle jumping capability of an aging Turtle – go carefully UNDER the barrier!) one of the children in my study has been started in a new entrant class that is not part of the study. Oh bother! However, in the end I did gather all the data I had intended. Now the ‘interesting’ part. I disappeared into my office. Family and friends thought I had left the country. I was immersing myself in interview transcripts, diagrams of classrooms, excel tables and inspiration mind maps. – All very heady stuff! I was also realising that the transition from classroom teacher to researcher can be a lonely road – as teachers we are continually surrounded by children, parents, colleagues. As a researcher I find myself spending large amounts of time alone with my laptop (which by now is taking over my life). Thank goodness for Skype. The other e-fellows are finding the same thing, we are suffering people withdrawal to some extent. Using skype to keep in touch is a great way of supporting each other and gives us the chance to discuss our research without running up huge phone bills. I am now beginning to write up what I am finding. Synthesising my observations into a narrative, linking to the reading I have been doing is both demanding and exciting. I am looking forward to sharing this with you at Ulearn. I am also involved with 2 other e-fellows from this year, Carol Marks (ECE) and Liz Fitzsimons (early primary) in developing a website with ideas for ICT use in ECE and early primary years. This will be launched just before Ulearn. Watch this space! I would like to express my profound gratitude to the teachers who have been so generous in allowing me access to their classrooms. It is not always easy to have an extra body in the room watching what is happening. I have been privileged to see wonderful teaching and exciting learning happening – it reminds me why we all go back day after day to what can be an incredibly busy and at times stressful job. See you at Ulearn!