Entry One

Children in our centre have always been interested in transport specially the boys.  Whenever they see trucks, the postman on his motorbike and even the rubbish truck passing by, they call out to their friends and they all stand by the fence to watch them pass by.  They would then excitedly discuss the various sounds, the size and the wheels of the vehicles they see.  One morning as I was on the playground I again saw a group of children calling out to their friends.  "Look said A, It is a blue one but it's not the rubbish truck".  Z added " Its carrying something at the back".  The children's excitement grew as they saw the truck stop right in front of our centre and when some people got off and started unloading things from it.  As they eagerly watched on, the children  tried to figure out what these men were doing.  "What are they doing here, Z asked me?"  "I don't know at the moment but I see they they have got some spades, cones, a wheelbarrow and some other tools," I replied.  A added, "I know, its the men who fix the roads".  The children decide to wait and see what these men were going to do and from then on kept reporting back to me and other children as the men set to work on the footpath.  By afternoon the men had dug out part of the footpath and had started putting new concrete on it.  When we returned to the playground after lunch the men were still working.  By now the children were eager to know why these men were 'fixing' part of the footpath when it was not 'broken'.

Since the children had been following this progress so keenly and were eager to know why the workmen were fixing a good footpath, I discussed this with my superviser and asked if I could take a group of children to see what was happening.  Te Whariki requires that adults "plan activities, resources and events which build upon and extend children's interests" (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.83).  Soon I with another teacher and a group of children went over to have a closer look.  The children quickly pointed out that the men were putting some yellow thing like tiles on the footpath.  Upon asking the men informed us that they were putting kerb ramps on footpaths for wheelchair and baby pram access.  They also told us that they will be putting one on the other side of the road as well. 

Upon returning to our center the children wanted to find out how the kerb ramps will help people using wheelchairs and baby prams on the road so we decided to look up the internet.   According to Talay-Ongan & Ap (2005) with appropriate support and supervision from adults, the use of websites as a medium for exploration can promote effective learning for children.  The children seemed to understand better when we saw images of lots of wheelchair ramps.  We also found out that these ramps were also helpful for cyclists and pedestrians specially people with low vision and that they indicate and provide a good crossing place.  In this experience not only did children make use of the technology that they are most aware of (that is the computer) but they also learnt about another form of technology being used in their environment. Smorti (1999) states that "technology is about helping people and solving problems" (p.5).