Comments on: KinderKidsDraw!

By: Web 2.0 and Early Childhood Education « Organic Classroom

Web 2.0 and Early Childhood Education « Organic Classroom — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 01:09:13 +0000

[...] children are using voice thread to share drawings and comments with children around the world, KinderKidsDraw. Wiki’s can be a safe place for children to store work and have a selected audience. I see [...]

By: mscofino

mscofino — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 02:06:19 +0000

@Simon,

Thank you! So glad the idea is inspiring!

@mpodulka,

I hope you are able to get your teachers on board! This was a great early project for us – not a lot of stress, but a lot of great outcomes! Please feel free to join the wiki and we will add you in!

By: mpodulka

mpodulka — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:59:57 +0000

Kim,
I am in a constant battle with Kindergarten and first grade teachers who feel computers are completely inappropriate for their students. I really don’t see how they can not use this project. Crossing my fingers. What a fantastic idea!

By: Simon

Simon — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:09:42 +0000

Thank you guys for the wonderful job you are doing here.It’s really an inspiring adeas and projects that people surely will do the same.

By: links for 2008-11-04 | Collateral Learning

links for 2008-11-04 | Collateral Learning — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 20:01:10 +0000

[...] KinderKidsDraw! | always learning (tags: earlychildhood) [...]

By: mscofino

mscofino — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 11:53:08 +0000

@Silvia,

Thank you! I really appreciate this! I was really going with my gut instinct and seeing where it would take me (although I do have a background in elementary ed, I certainly don’t know all there is to know about early childhood education). I’m lucky to work with such open-minded and talented classroom teachers that let me try these kinds of projects with their students.

@Chris,

Thank you for all your positive feedback and personal insight! It is good to know that I’m on the right page with this type of project – and it will definitely be interesting to see how these students are with technology when they get to first grade.

It’s already amazing to me just how quickly they adapt. They expect to be having these kinds of experiences and they expect them to work – it’s not exciting for the “wow” factor for them, it’s just the way they communicate. One student said to me: “I want to talk to my friend x in Houston today,” not even realizing that this was some kind of special project set up with specific classes – he’s just used to Skyping with his friends back and home, and why wouldn’t we do that in class too?

@Heather,

Excellent! I’m so glad to have you on board! Want to add your VoiceThread to the wiki? Maybe we can find some other ELL classes to work with you too?

By: Computers » Do kids under the age of 16 use computers for something other than gaming?

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 01:47:20 +0000

[...] KinderKidsDraw! [...]

By: hvlach

hvlach — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 01:12:56 +0000

Hey Kim! I would love to get in on this with my 2 “fabulous” colleagues! In Kindergarten English Language Learner Land, we are almost done with our Voice Thread project. Check it out… http://heatherv.edublogs.org/projects/

Kinder Kids Can!

By: Chris Hyde

Chris Hyde — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 01:00:59 +0000

This is exactly what we believe in our school district here in Pennsylvania, U.S.A. In fact, I passed on your KinderKidsDraw project to a couple teachers in my district, and they signed up last week. We also eliminated labs in our district because we feel students work better in chunks at a time or several days in a row rather than one 30-minute session every 6 day cycle. You’re right on about breaks, special assemblies, and weekends stretch those sessions way out and students lose any sense of continuity. We recently have been stretching our instruction all the way down to Kindergarten for many of the same reasons. They want to learn, they are capable of using technology, and think about how much farther ahead they will be next year as first graders. I think you should keep feeding those sponges – keep up the good work! Thanks for your insight and hopefully you’ll be hearing from some of our schools soon!

By: Silvia Tolisano

Silvia Tolisano — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 14:11:33 +0000

Yes, yes, yes Kindergarteners CAN do age appropriate technology rich projects. The attention you are focusing on them is so worth it. Imagine the first graders you will be having next year ! You are building towards an amazing group of students that will have everything they need to create, think, share and collaborate with many different tools.

My experience with the Kindergarteners has been that they are as receptive and as ready to work with ANY tool as their fantastic teachers are. They are sponges and willing and ready to go with you where ever you will take them.

They need, of course, more one on one time than their older peers but have the attitude “I want to do it myself”, while some of the older grades are much quicker to say “I can’t do it- help me”.

Your observation, that is is better to work more frequently rather than once a week on a project, has proven to be true for us too. For that age group it is important to allow them to see the connections between lessons and allow them to build on their skills. If too much time passes between lessons it is like starting from the beginning. One week in the life of a 5 year old is a lot longer.

The classroom teachers are key to make this work for the little ones. The more they connect the projects to the rest of their curriculum and daily routines, the more the students will be ready to use the technology as a tool that it is meant for, not as a stand alone program to be learned.

In order to allow the classroom teachers to integrate technology and reinforce concepts frequently, not just the once a week lab time, they need to have tools readily available in the classroom too.
Too many times are the ELC (Early Learning Center) grades overlooked when distributing hardware (SmartBoard, projectors, extra computers, document cameras, etc) to the classrooms.

If we start using technology to connect the lower grades to others and have them use tools to express themselves and their learning, then we will grow them into students who will expect/demand more from their learning.

Your KinderKidsDraw project is a perfect way to get started with that age group.