Technology at the Carpentry table...hammer, hammer! 4th Blog

18th April 2011
Here I was outside working alongside the children at the carpentry table, when I realised this was a good opportunity to take photos for my final blog.  The children were using a variety of tools and we were having alot of discussions about what they were using and what the tools did. I asked A “What are you making there”? He replied and said he was making a rocket ship and was using the bottle lids as the windows on the rocket ship. I then asked L if he was building something. “He then looked at me, and shook his head and said ‘No I am just being the builder”. G was also standing at the table with her wood sitting in the vice, and I asked her what she was trying to do as I could see she was getting frustrated because it wouldn’t stay in.  She asked if I could help her put her wood in the vice. So I adjusted it and held the wood while she tightened the vice, she started sawing away.

The children here were working with a variety of tools and resources to create and build. I set up the carpentry table and they had hand drills, saws, hammers, nails, bottle tops, wood, measuring tapes, glue guns and a vice attached to the table. They were busy creating and I enjoyed watching the way they used these tools and fostering the technology associated with carpentry by scaffolding their learning, and using language as a tool, by extending on conversations at the table (Talay & Ap, 2004) .

It was then while I was assisting and helping I was able to see this was a form of technology and how this area of technology had changed over time. It is important that as teachers we have the ability to step foot out of our comfort zones and encourage children to explore actively with a variety of technologies for different purposes as they explore the world. This reflects and promotes children’s problem solving skills and the way they develop skills and associate the technological world around them (Ministry of Education, 1996).

I was really amazed because I don’t think I would have been able to associate carpentry tools as a form of technology previously, but it is. I am able to recognise that technology goes beyond ICT, this is where teachers need to step out of our own thinking and associating technology as being limited to ICT and acknowledge that when children are exploring and being creative through meaningful activities, they are in fact using items associated with technology.  Smorti (1999) highlights technology is about helping people and the process involved in creating directly links to common practices of technology. This is how carpentry is a form of technology as the children are creating and here the process is with the tools and resources involved.

Smorti  (1999), also acknowledges that technology involves problem solving, thinking about process and beyond, successful products and the ability for children to develop research for practical purposes and consider what they already know. This all directly links to the use of tools here at the carpentry table, and

At the carpentry table many creative processes and products happen associated with technology. Reggio Emilia approaches currently highlight technology being able to assist and bringing creative knowledge, products and projects to life. Children need and use technology in order to bring their projects or creations to life. Without technology children are in limited to what they can do and how they can explore (Mitchell, 2007).

Hong, S. & Trepanier-Street, M. (2004). Technology: A tool for knowledge construction in a Reggio Emilia inspired teacher education program. Early Childhood Education Journal, 32 (2), pp. 87-94.

Ministry of Education (1996). Te Wha-riki. He whaariki matauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media.

  

Mitchell, L. M. (2007). Using Technology in Reggio Emilia-Inspired Programs. Theory Into Practice, 46 (1), pp. 32-39.

Taylay-Ongan, A., A.Ap, E. (2005). Child development and teaching young children.          Australia: Thompson/Social science press.