1. "Building a house by using a computer"

Technology is around us and the world that we live in. As Smorti (1999) emphasized that "it is a world that people have created and changed through technology" (p. 5). Technology is about helping people and solving problems" (Smorti, 1999, p. 1). Technology involves "thinking about processes, successful products, practical invention, design, searches for solutions" and so on (Fisher and Garvey, 1992).  


This is an amazing story of a four year old boy who loves technology and passion about building houses by using computer. I have noticed M in the centre every day interested in technology and never wanted to leave the computer. Each morning he arrives in the centre goes straight to the computer and starts building his house. If he comes in the morning and the computer is not on he would come straight to me and ask if I can turn the computer on. Lee, Hatherley, and Ramsey (2002) strongly believe that “computers should be used to promote the social interactions of the wider group and to deepen the learning opportunities for children” (p. 15).  As I observe this four year old boy in the centre how very smart he is on using computer to build a house, play with the mouse by clicking on different pictures that suited for his work, and talking about his own work to the teachers. He is very passionate about his learning and development through technology not only at school but at home as well as her grandmother has shared to us teachers. As Smorti (1999) believes that “technology is also a creative and purposeful activity aimed at meeting needs and opportunities through the development of products, systems or environments” (p. 5). He creates a lifetime meaningful moments through his interests and participation in technology by using computer to starts and complete his own work without any help from teachers. One of the myths about computer use in the early years from Tsantis, Cynthia, Bewick, and Thouvenelle (2003) that "computers are easy to use" (P. 2). However, it can be easy to some children like M and it can be so hard for other children as well as teachers. 

S is standing and watch M's work on computer!

"This is my house S", says M.

"I am building a house for my grandmother S" says, M.

Click, click, click!

On the same morning, a one year old girl from the under two’s area came along to M and joins in M’s work on the computer. As I was observing M’s learning and development through technology, he told the little girl from under two that he is building a house for her grandparents and he wants her to have a look at it. The little girl kept watching everything that M was doing on the computer. M then shows S, the little girl from the under two’s, about the address number of the house. He presses the number two first on the keyboard and then he continues on to pressing the number three and said it is the number for his grandparent’s house. M was so excited about his work, as he showed determination to learn more and more about technology through his creative designing of his grandparent’s house. One of the researcher named Haughland (2000) cited in Lee et al. (2002) confirmed that "three to four year old children who use computers as part of the curriculum have significantly greater developmental increases compared with children without computer experiences in similar classrooms" (p. 15). Talking with M’s grandmother, who works as one of the supervisors in the centre, she explains to me about how M was first interested in playing with computers which was when he turned one he started to play with an old computer at home. And even up to now he gets access to the computer or laptop at home and sometimes his older sibling’s helps him out on how to work along the computer which he confident enjoys playing and exploration whenever he gets a chance to. Plowman, McPake, and Stephen (2008) believes as cultural awareness “children’s understanding of the roles which technology plays in family life and in the wider world and their ability to harness this understanding for a range of social and cultural purposes” (p. 309). It states in Te Whāriki (1996) that “as part of a world revolution in communication, technology, work and leisure children will need to develop confidence in themselves and be able to communicate acquiring new knowledge and skills” (MoE, 1996. p. 18).