Technology and Primary Learners

At times it seems that in primary grades teachers are hesitant to introduce or utilize technology tools with their young learners. Maybe it is because they are thinking it is too hard for the students. Maybe it is because the teacher does not feel like an expert or feel comfortable with some of the technology tools that are available. Maybe the feeling is there is so much to teach these young learners there isn't "time" to use technology.

In my experience in the past and this year I have seen a different viewpoint. I feel that primary learners are the perfect people to use technology with because their rate of learning and understanding of new concepts is exponential! They are Digital Natives and us educators are Digital Immigrants.  These students know only of the digital age and expect to interact with technology, not just be passive intakers of information. Also, these younger learners are not afraid to explore something new and figure out what it does with no fear of deleting work or messing things up. I have watched countless young children push various buttons just to see what it did.  In addition, by using technology tools students can learn academic content, practice academic content and show their understanding of academic content and isn't that what we are trying to accomplish in the first place?

Here's a video of ways a teacher in a primary grade in Canada has been tapping into technology tools.  I hope it helps others start thinking of ways they can include our primary learners in the world of technology.

Shrieks and Squeals of Excitement

Friday afternoon I had the craziest, funniest hour ever with a bunch of first graders.  They came bounding into the computer lab with such energy I was taken aback for a moment.  I need to let you in on a few things about what I believe led to this buzz of excitement.  It was the day of our school's Springtacular (spring carnival) and at lunch there was a tootsie roll raffle where they kids buy tootsie rolls by the handful to try and win a prize.  So these kids were hyped up on sugar and overflowing with bottled up anxiousness for the evening event.  And...it was their first time coming to the computer lab.

We started off by learning how to log onto the computer using their student account information.  Boring stuff, but necessary.  Then we got to the good part.  Exploring!  The students and I discussed what it meant to explore.  "Try it out" and "Find new things" were some of their answers.  So I set them loose to explore the application we were working with, Pixie.

You should have heard their shrieks and squeals when they discovered what different buttons could do!  You would hear someone scream "Oh Wow Cool!" and then about 5 kids would jump out of their seats and race over to the kid that shouted it out to see what they had discovered.  Then those 5 kids would speed back to their computer and try to recreate what they had seen.  This level of screeching, cheering and running around went on for about 20 minutes.  Then I gave the students an opportunity to share with everyone what they have uncovered during their exploration time.

This is what I love about my job.  Students excitement about using technology!  Yes, it got loud.  VERY LOUD!  But, I didn't mind because I knew it was because they were engaged in what we were doing!