Upload
daniela-daykin
View
224
Download
0
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
EARLY CHILDHOOD LEARNING & THE
MEDIA ENVIRONMENT
PRIYA S. NAYARMEDIA EDUCATION
LAB
What about children and their interaction with the
media environment? Where do we begin? How
do we begin looking at media influences?
Can we even make sense of media education for
early childhood?
“Far from being mere unfinished adults, babies and young
children are exquisitely designed by evolution to change and create, to learn and explore.”
Alison GopnikHow Babies Think?!
Video LinksGood Babies and Talking Babies
Allison Gopnik
http://youtu.be/TVRnbkHyXYk
Twins “Talking” to Each Other:
http://youtu.be/_JmA2ClUvUY
TED Talk on “The Birth of a Word”http://www.ted.com/talks/deb_roy_the_birth_of_a_word.html
In New York schools: Stephen Wise,
Waldorf and Trevor Day Schools – what
are the different perspectives of
Media Use in Early Childhood Care?
At the Stephen Wise ECC, the focus is on
documenting... “Children are not distracted by the
physical environment, instead the environment is utilized for learning… We document everything and the kids are used to being
photographed!” Teacher at Stephen Wise ECC as she
takes pictures
Waldorf Schools function as a “Media Free” environment. A Waldorf School writes, “The
school’s efforts to foster students’ healthy emotional development
and meaningful relationships with their environment are undermined
by those encounters with media that separate children from
authentic experience and promote a distorted, developmentally
inappropriate and consumerist view of the world.” Media Policy
Waldorf Schools, Media Policies
http://www.waldorfgarden.org/index.aspx
http://www.waldorfgarden.org/curriculum/preschool.aspx
Trevor Day School Administrator tells me that they consciously monitor use of media,
utilizing media tools for learning from the
beginning… “Our Nursery media use that I can think of are CD’s and DVD’s…for
language learning and other educational videos”
Trevor Day School, NYC
Technology at Trevor Day School: http://www.trevor.org/podium/default.aspx?t=117933
Developmental Ability In an interview with a
Teacher’s Union representative, she
exclaims that “…children do not need to be exposed to media. What they need is a
relationship with their teacher!”
In Simple Language
• Media Education for early childhood is not instructional, it must be interactive and allow children the “listening space”
• Experiential learning can (and should) include media tools - media education does not replace a teacher-student relationship!
• Teachers need to be educated on what media education is about, how it can be incorporated in an early childhood setting, what are the benefits of providing these tools… these questions need statistically backed up answers
In my research, my readings and discussions
it is clear that early childhood teaching /
learning is about developmental theories. Children are expected to learn socializing, they are expected to understand
commands and wait their turn…
The idea that children who are not
introduced to media at an early age are
“missing” a key element in their
educational tool box is still pretty alien to
most teachers I spoke with.