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PORTLAND, Oregon—
Wait, back up. PCs? How does the hum of hardware blend with little voices singing silly songs or with tiny tennis shoes pattering on linoleum? How do CD-ROMs mix with scissors and crayons? Does technology really fit into an early-childhood learning environment with its emphasis on play and exploration? Like a child's hand in a warm mitten-if it's done right, says teacher Gene Casqueiro. "Technology must become a natural part of the classroom environment," Casqueiro says. "It needs to be an extension of everyday life." He strives to weave computers seamlessly into activities geared to young children's growth and needs. His efforts are evident in his room, where students divide the bulk of their time between math activities ("Math Tubs") and literacy activities ("Centers" and "Writers' Workshop"). One recent morning, when each child was occupied at one of the dozen "centers" set up around the room, technology was everywhere. Yet it was folded so skillfully into the larger fabric of the room, a visitor might easily miss it in the hubbub of building, drawing, cutting, pasting, paper rattling, and collaborative chattering. "Boys and girls, remember: Exercise your brains and not your feet," Casqueiro gently admonishes as the children settle into their projects. At the Pet Shop Center, Kayli works intently, designing and drawing a digital toy ladder for Fraidy-cat the ferret, who yawns and stretches in his cage after a morning nap. Next to Kayli's PC is a sign bearing the challenge for the week: Using KidPix, can you create a toy for our classroom pet? (Software: KidPix Studio by Broderbund.) Across the room at the Block Center, a sign reads: USING BLOCKS, CAN YOU CREATE A DESK FOR A COMPUTER AND PRINTER? Alexis and Avecena are busily building a computer desk to hold a set of cardboard boxes mocked up to look like computer components. Beside the girls, Alex is taping strands of orange yarn to another set of cardboard components. "I connected everything to the hard drive," Alex announces as Casqueiro stops by to check on the children's progress. Over in the Science Center, where the posted challenge is CAN YOU EXPLORE THE INSIDE OF A COMPUTER USING A MAGNIFYING GLASS?, Karen wears a white lab coat and, sitting at a table strewn with disassembled computers parts, peers intently at the magnified jumble of rainbow-colored wire on a circuit board. Nearby, Ibrahim sits at one of the classroom's six PCs in his lab coat, viewing a CD-ROM called How Multimedia Computers Work (published by The Software Toolworks Inc.) which at this moment is explaining the mechanics of a mouse. A Kurdish refugee from Kuwait who doesn't speak much English, Ibrahim seems undaunted by the English narration on the CD. "Computers break the language barrier," remarks Casqueiro, who has four Kurdish refugees, two Somalis, and two Spanish-speaking kids among his 27 morning students. Meanwhile, over in the Easel Center, Josh is finishing a cheerful drawing of his mom standing beside a potted flower. CAN YOU CREATE A PICTURE PROGRAM FOR THIS COMPUTER? is the challenge for this center, where Casqueiro has drawn a simple outline of a computer on each drawing pad. Josh's "MomWare" is displayed on the make-believe monitor. The boy completes his work by coloring the components in vivid shades of orange, green, and blue. On days when Casqueiro's kids do Math Tubs instead of Centers, computers are evident, as well. While some children make paper chains or fill in circles with cray ons during a recent lesson on patterns, other kids use KidPix to create patterns of virtual rubber stamps. Sabrina giggles as frogs multiply wildly on her computer screen. "Look at those frogs!" she says, gleefully. "They're so funny!" After some experimenting, she abandons the frogs in favor of lollipops alternating with wiggly worms. Kayli creates a pattern of two eggs, two raccoons, two eggs, two raccoons. Chloe makes a series of rubies, emeralds, diamonds, and rabbits. A quick thumb through Griffin's math portfolio reveals his fondness for elephants, which pop up again and again in computer-generated patterns with ostriches, snakes, and other creatures. Griffin's elephant fixation seems linked to his love of Irvin, the elephant puppet who, from time to time, pops out of Casqueiro's "transporter," a mysterious bucket covered with all sorts of technical-looking gizmos and thingamajigs. Irvin led a recent lesson on "Computer Wizards," in which he hung photos of computer components and accessories (such as a mouse pad, a printer, and a floppy disk) on a felt board, and asked the students to name them. When "programs" showed up on the board, Irvin couldn't restrain himself. "I know one of the programs!" he blurted out excitedly. "KidPix! KidPix is one of the programs!" Casqueiro likes KidPix because it's a child-directed program, rather than a computer-driven program-one that leads the student through a series of drills, for example. "Too many parents and teachers see the computer as a glorified worksheet, and it's not," he says. "Open-ended programs like KidPix permit a broad range of possible strategies and outcomes." The Number One message he hopes to instill in his kindergartners, he says, is that people drive technology. "Too many children think the computer controls them. A child should learn that technology can be controlled by someone, and that he or she can be that someone."
On software:
On money:
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This document's URL is: Home | Up & Coming | Programs & Projects: Northwest Education | People | Products & Publications | Topics © 2001 Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
Date of Last Update: 9/28/01 
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TEACHER'S
FOOTNOTES
