©1996, J. Davis
& D. Bombard

Projects	RE 503 - Internet for Teachers

Internet for Young Children

(User Documentation)

Project: Internet for Young Children


Subjects: Computer Technology, Art and Language
Grade Level: ages 3-5


Number of participants: 7


Summary:

It is a challenge when working with young children, to create media projects that are developmentally appropriate. As children learn best by direct experience we have chosen to create activities that include themselves and their own work as a connection to understanding what the technology can do. As these children are not yet reading, a certain amount of the operation needs to be done by the adult/teacher.

This particular class of 3-5 year olds has several personal links to Japan. Earlier this year they spent two months exploring Japanese culture and geographical location. They have also had a computer in their classroom hence were familiar with some basic functions.

Goals:

To create activities that involve beginners in interactive computering.

To expose children to the Internet and its global reach.

Objectives:

The children will be able to recognize their work and photos on the computer screen.

The children will actively participate in creating e-mail messages.

The children will demonstrate verbally an understanding of what communication took place.

Rationale

The children would gain increased comfort in working with computers.

They would also benefit by having authentic experiences with the technology.

Experiences that include themselves and their own work on the Internet would help to build concepts of what the technology is in addition to the games they are already familiar with.

Procedure:

This project would involve a small group of children (7) working with two teachers. Depending on the activity planned, the group would either be split into two groups, each having the guidance of one teacher, or remain in one single group. Implementation would take place once a week over the course of five weeks. The technnologies demonstrated would include scanning artwork and photos, accessing similar work from another site over the Internet and sending e-mail to a global connection. Hopefully this will result in a response.

The activities will include:

(1) Introduction to the Media and Language Centers where the computers we will be using are lodged.
Scanning in an example of a child's artwork and a photograph of a child involved in an activity.
Teachers will later scan in work from and photos of all children involved in the project.

(2) Look at all the scanned in work and then proceed to a previously determined site where comparable work might be found from a global connection.

(3) Split the group into two smaller groups, one of which will use the Media Center and the other will use the Language Center to compose, send and receive e-mail messages between the two groups.

(4) e-mail a message to someone we know or create a connection with (i.e., the group we looked at in activity #2, an author we have read or a family member of one of the children in the group).

(5) Check for and read any response we receive.

Assessment:

Being that the group we will be working with is preliterate, assessment will be through naturalistic observations and a questionnaire.

We will be looking for the children's ability to identify and claim the work that was scanned in, the children's reactions to and discussion of the activities and their responses to questions posed by the teachers.