Child Initiated Computer Work

[mackdebs]

My EYA and I are having a bit of a debate at the moment. When the Year R children are involved in their own learning during free flow times and we are doing observations , several of the boys choose CBBs on the computer and some of these games are typical fighting scenarios with monsters, mummys etc. My EYA is horrified and says CBBs should be banned and we should insist on Expresso and other more educational programmes. The trouble is, the minute our backs are turned, the more competent computer users are flicking onto the programmes they prefer. I'd like to know what other teachers think about this-how do you deal with Internet usage?

[Susan]

Does your classroom PC need to be connected to the internet? I would remove that facility and concentrate on skill development and programs to enhance this. It may be that you need to rethink how you are using the computer in your classroom to maximise the learning potential from it.

[mackdebs]

I agree-can't think of any reason why we need to be connected to the Internet, because we can use Google Earth and other things in the IT suite. I'm going to look into disconnecting!

[Guest]

Disconnecting should be easy enough and should affect anything else hopefully.

 

If you have wireless there should be a tiny icon in the bottom left hand corner (near the time) that looks like two little computers linked together. If you double click on this (or right click and choose properties) it should bring up the connections. If you right click on each icon and choose disable then your connection to the internet will stop working and that should solve your problem.

 

Alternatively you can disable it through the control pannel option in the start menu.

[lizzielou]

I have to disagree - what these children are demonstrating are high level skills of being able to use the internet to find web pages. I think it is about training the children to use the computer appropriately. I have a similar issue with my boys who always would prefer to use cbeebies rather than the other programmes or activities available. This became an issue and I did not want to take this away from them so instead we built it into golden time, they are only allowed to use cbeebies for 10/15 minutes during the golden time and this has worked they have begun to use a range of different programs and software now. If you disconnect the internet the message you are sending to them is a negative one - we should be training these children to be safe and use IT appropriately. I have also used Cbeebies as a stimulus for psed and creative activities - the boys have had to use their experiences of the games to create their own board games for others to play - this kept the boys focused and engrossed for an afternoon and the games they created were amazing!