Entry 4

I noticed H looking at my phone on the desk in the office. After noticing this I handed him my phone. He looked at the phone, then me and laughed. With that he pushed the phone back to me. I told him that he was allowed to play on it and handed it back to him two more times and he just looked at it and pushed it away. This suggests that he might not want to play on the phone or that he was being cheeky, as he has a cheeky personality. I spoke to his mum and she said that he probably did not want to touch the phone as he knows that his older brother is not allowed to touch her phone at home. She also said that she does not believe that children under 3 should be allowed screen time.

C saw H and I playing with my phone and asked if he could have a turn. C asked me to out the camera in and looked at the phone. He asked me to put the camera on to face him. He took three photos, told me that 'mummy and C take photos like this' and handed the phone back to me. This could be because he is an active child and does not like sitting for long periods of time.

CT saw C taking photos on my phone and asked for a turn. He had the camera facing him and locked the phone. He tried to unlocked the phone but when he could not figure out the passcode, he asked me to do it. Once the phone was unlocked CT went around the crèche showing everyone that they were 'in' my phone. After showing everyone the phone, he started to swipe left, right, left. He looked at the apps and 'called' his mum. 'Hi mummy, CT' he kept saying. CT carried on playing with the phone by taking photos of the crèche. This suggests that CT watches his parents on their phones and possibly plays on the phones. I spoke to his mum and she said that he loves playing on their phones and pretending to be his dad on business calls. She also said that she limits his screen time as she does not want him to become obsessed with being on screens all the time.

All three of these boys who I used to evaluate their skills with ICT were all different and surprisingly what they did with the iphone matched their personality. But at the same time they all showed that they were not 100% sure what to do with the phone nor did they really want the phone expect CT who wanted to keep the phone but would hardly touch or move the screen around.

When I brought out my phone it started the three children to be interested in why i was givin them my phone. Not only did it interest the children that I gave it to but also the children who were watching them have a go. This started to spark questions about my phone with the other children as ICT can make children critically think and ask questions. (Archard, 2013)

As well as this it does show that all three boys’ parents spend time with them and do not use digital technology as a babysitter a lot. After doing this evaluation on the children and how they would use the iphone, my centre manager decided that she was going to put out a survey to see how many parents allow their children to use digital technology in their homes and how often.

Archard, S. (2013). Democracy in early childhood education: How information and communication technology contributes to democratic pedagogy and practices. Early Childhood Folio, 17(2), 27-32.