Over the last six months, the SmartCentres early childhood education project has supported 46 Manukau early childhood centres to develop technology plans. The plans, developed through a facilitator, help the centres take stock of their current use of information and communications technologies (ICT) and create a vision for using them in ways that better support their teaching programmes.
“Manukau’s economic wellbeing depends on the way in which we use the tools of the future,” says COMET CEO Bernardine Vester. “From the earliest years, children become familiar with these tools. In fact, children often take up technology faster than their parents. But every child in every Manukau centre needs to have the opportunity to access technology now if they are to be well prepared for learning in the 21st Century.“ “The SmartCentres project has offered particular support for Pacific early childhood centres. Research told us that these centres had the least resources and capacity to use new technologies.”
Each plan for the centres was individualised, and included
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A background statement for each centre focusing on current ICT use
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An ICT Vision developed from discussions in the centre. Where do the centres want to be in 3-5 years?
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A stock-take of current equipment and resource needs
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A professional development strategy to develop educators’ understanding of how technology can be used for learning and for connecting to their families
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An ICT funding strategy to help the centres apply for funds or fundraise for their technology needs
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A plan for how each centre will work with family and community
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A plan for how the centre will work with other centres
Centres have been supported to see ICT planning and implementation in a holistic way. Sessions with the teachers included Cyber-safety, creating newsletters for parents and whanau, creating templates for meeting minutes and agendas, using a digital camera to create “learning stories”, and the use of the KidPix software.
“Many centres have ICT resources, but often they do not use the resources to their full potential. The emphasis needs to be on supporting adults in the centres to learn about how the equipment can best be used,“ says Bernardine Vester.
The project was funded by the Digital Strategy Community Partnership Fund (Department of Internal Affairs), and supported by IBM, who donated ten Kidsmart computer kiosks to Pacific early childhood centres, with commitment to fund ten more in the next funding year.
