There are many ways that technology can be used to promote active learning in kindergarten. Technology should not be used as a replacement for hands-on learning. Kindergarten students need to engage in activities such as playing, exploring, and interacting with their environment to develop their social, emotional, and physical skills. A balanced approach that incorporates both technology and hands-on learning experiences is ideal.

An existing piece of technology that it is a focal point in my classroom is the projector. It is used to enhance the teaching and learning process by increasing student engagement by making lessons more visually stimulating, improve retention and increase accessibility. For an activity example, displaying a video of a farm visit to create a virtual field trip.

To enhance the experience for my students who are aged between 2 and 6, an interactive whiteboard can be incorporated on top of the projector, that can be used to display educational games and activities that the students can interact with. With the same example used previously, students can interact with the video, navigating their way through a virtual farm and interacting with the animals by pressing on them.

The need for an interactive whiteboard with projection can improve the engagement of my young students, as they are more often interested in technology and interactive activities. A comparison can be drawn from my students using their parents’ phones to play an educational app. It can increase participation from students who have the fear of communicating with teachers who have social anxiety (Manuel Prieto et al., 2023) that has seen a high rise because of the restrictions of COVID-19 that crippled the educational system in Hong Kong between late 2019 and 2022 (Lau et al. 2021). Increased participation can enhance the teacher-student interaction, as the interactive whiteboard can facilitate immediate feedback as a teacher can promptly respond to the actions of the student.

Interactive whiteboards are designed to be user-friendly and easy to operate, so most kindergarten students should be able to use them with minimal difficulty. As mentioned before, the current generation have early experience of using smart phones, with the same navigation tools as an interactive whiteboard. However, there are a few skills that students may need to develop to use interactive whiteboards effectively.

Students should have the fine motor skills necessary to accurately touch an area of the board. This may involve developing hand-eye coordination and fine motor control which upper kindergarten students have the ability of (Zhan, Zehui et al., 2022). This may involve developing hand-eye coordination, finger dexterity, and fine motor control. Teachers can help students develop these skills through activities such as drawing, colouring, and writing, a key component in the early years of kindergarten.

Interactive activities often solving puzzles and completing interactive activities, so basic problem-solving skills are required. This includes being able to identify patterns, make observations, and use logic and reasoning to solve problems which kindergarten students do not have. For myself, it is important that the activity reflects the ability of the student, giving clear concise instructions to guide them to the answer.

References

Hung Lau, E.Y. & Li, J.-B. (2021) Hong Kong Children’s School Readiness in Times of COVID-19: The Contributions of Parent Perceived Social Support, Parent Competency, and Time Spent With Children.

Manuel Prieto, J., Salas Sánchez, J., Tierno Cordón, J., Álvarez-Kurogi, L., González-García, H. and Castro López, R. (2023). Social anxiety and academic performance during COVID-19 in schoolchildren. PLOS ONE, 18(1)

Zhan, Z. et al. (2022). Effect of Unplugged Programming Teaching Aids on Children’s Computational Thinking and Classroom Interaction: With Respect to Piaget’s Four Stages Theory. Journal of educational computing research.