After having spent a week at my centre I can honestly say that it is humbling to see the other extreme of early childhood with regards to locality and funding. My centre is small and private. The staff are very welcoming and I cannot speak more highly of the centre director.

I have noted that the use of technology is simple but effective. There is a computer which is linked to an overhead projector. This is used daily at mat times for music and dance and story time. The children are allowed to use the computer and the skill of the older children in the class is very high. They know how to access the internet, find and locate the songs and stories on Youtube. There is internet safety in place and the searches are monitored by the teachers.

All be it a small amount of technology, it is still put into practice and the children are confident enough to use the computer at any time. During quiet time, the are allowed onto the computer to try out literacy and numeracy games.

During the on coming weeks, I would like to introduce the use of cameras to the children. The aim is to increase their interest and allowing them to have fun through experimentation. I will trial this as a project approach staring off with children taking photos randomly. After printing these photos, we will then discuss what has happened and what we could expand on further. I believe that through doing this I am encouraging language, social skills, creativity and appreciation of others work (Clark, 2004).

This project will be treated as in in-depth investigation by the children through choice of topic, that will be worthy of their time, attention and energy (Katz, 1994b, as cited in Clark, 2004). Knowledge is a fixed notion of truth waiting to be discovered. Learning is viewed as possession that is necessary and results in social standing. "Knowledge is not absolute, immutable and external, but rather relative to the developmental interaction of man with his world as problems arise to present themselves for solution" (Clark,2004, p2).

Katz & Chard (1993), as cited in Clark, 2004 refers to the project approach to indicate that it is one important element of an early childhood curriculum. The project approach, based on Dewey's ideas, is a way of working with children so that they might come to deeper understanding of the world they live in (Clark,2004).

Through creating meaningful opportunities to apply the skills and knowledge children have acquired through direct instruction will incorporate project work into the curriculum. As the children make careful observation through their project work, they will have reason to use literacy and numeracy symbols to represent and communicate to others what they are learning about. What each child chooses to communicate to others is meaningful to her or him (Clark, 2004).

A further advantage of the project approach is that is offers children to develop desirable dispositions or habits of mind toward learning, toward themselves and toward others. All young children have active and lively minds. To make sense of experience, investigate it, care about others, relate to them and adapt to their physical cultural environment are dispositions with children to nurture (Clark, 2004).

Reference:

Clark, A. (2004). Changing classroom practice to include the Project Approach.

Early Childhood Research and
Practice. 8.2 Fall 2004. Retrieved from http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v8n2/clark.html.