INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY USE – CO-VIEWING & RE-ENGAGING
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Evidencing our work with technology in the classroom is about balance; a balance between keeping up to date with the latest research, and undertaking our own context-based research, through reflection, practitioner enquiry and action research.
MEET DR KATE HIGHFIELD
Dr Kate Highfield is a senior lecturer at Swinburne University. She spent the last decade as a teacher educator and researcher at Macquarie University’ s Institute of Early Childhood and at Charles Sturt University’ s RIPPLE( Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education). Kate researches children’ s use of technology and is passionate about enabling educators to use research in their practice.
INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY USE – CO-VIEWING & RE-ENGAGING
By Laure Hislop, KU Professional Learning Consultant
‘ Young children and their families need relationships with mindful media mentors who are positive, enthusiastic tour guides and curious co-explorers in the digital age.’( Donohue 2017 p. 23)
Relationships matter, and children learn best when adults are fully present with them and responsive to their ideas and questions. Co-viewing technology can be used to strengthen the adult / child relationship by engaging in a shared experiences, using technology together to support learning.
What we are already doing?
A digital documentation platform called Storypark has been adopted across KU services as a tool for reporting to families and sharing the rich learning experiences afforded to children in KU services.
This digital documentation platform allows children, families and educators, to view the learning that has occurred at a centre level, and return to the documentation to re-visit the learning. Storypark has changed how teachers and families communicate. When we continue to document learning about individual
children, families are sure to engage with this innovative approach, and then to revisit the documentation. This reflective practice strengthens educators, and family relationships, and helps scaffold children’ s learning while providing insight into a child’ s learning potential.
Storypark supports the idea of allowing children the opportunity to re-visit learning, allows experiences to be shared, and concepts and ideas challenged and / or refined.
Children love to revisit their work. They want to see photos of what they have done and love revisiting their Storypark posts.
This innovative use of technology is proving to enhance family engagement. The better we document and the more we personalise the story, the more we strengthen the family relationships and the closer we come to joint engagement with families. Creating a true partnership, where families understand and have impact on what is happening in the classroom, and where education and care environments come to understand what is happening at home.
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