Cambridge University Press is a leading textbook publisher, delivering high quality teaching materials and learning solutions that inspire students to achieve. We publish textbooks for undergraduate and postgraduate students from world-class authors. Our textbooks provide students and lecturers with authoritative and stimulating material, relevant to real-world issues. Our textbooks are available in print or as eBooks, enabling students to access content in their preferred format. Browse our latest textbooks and order your inspection copy online at www.cambridge.org/techforchildren
Your contacts at Cambridge University Press John Elliot NSW, ACT, WA E: jelliot@cambridge.edu.au M: 0458 913 645
Shona Gray VIC, SA E: sgray@cambridge.edu.au M: 0418 517 879
Kim Lingard QLD, NT, TAS and New Zealand E: klingard@cambridge.edu.au M: 0437 389 810
Marilyn Fleer
TECHNOLOGIES FOR CHILDREN Equip students with the necessary skills and knowledge for teaching design and technology education in Australia
Lecturers, order your Inspection Copy If you teach a relevant course and are considering using one of our textbooks as a set text then you can request a free inspection copy.* Order your inspection copy in the following ways:
Online Visit www.cambridge.org, find your chosen textbook, click the ‘request an inspection copy’ button and complete the online form
Email Email details of your chosen textbook, along with your affiliation, course name, level and number of students to academicmarketing@cambridge. edu.au
Cambridge Alerts Sign up for our free, regular email service to receive the latest news and publications information, plus exclusive offers and discounts straight into your inbox.
Phone Telephone customer service on (03) 8671 1400
Join us online Search for us on Facebook at Cambridge University Press Academic Australia & NZ
www.cambridge.org/alerts
DATE PUBLISHED: May 2016 FORMAT: Paperback* ISBN: 9781107561564 *Subject to meeting course requirements
ABN 28 508 204 178
*also available as an eBook
www.cambridge.org/techforchildren
TECHNOLOGIES FOR CHILDREN What do we mean when we talk about technology? What constitutes knowledge in technology education? How can we find innovative solutions to complex technological problems? Technologies for Children presents a comprehensive array of contextual examples for teaching design and technology to children from birth to twelve years. Aligning with the Australian Curriculum – Technologies, this book focuses predominantly on design technologies, with special reference to digital technologies. It provides both theory and practical ideas for teaching infants, toddlers, preschoolers and primary children. Each chapter explores a different approach to teaching technologies education, along with elements of planning such as project management, achievement standards and pedagogy. Technologies for Children provides a framework for critiquing these approaches in order to make informed choices about them. Drawing on over 25 years of experience, Marilyn Fleer presents clear approaches that are readily applicable in the classroom, and equips students with the necessary skills and knowledge for teaching design and technology education in Australia.
KEY FEATURES • Aligns with the Australian Curriculum – Technologies. • A comprehensive companion website offers teaching slides and links to video and audio sources to enhance students’ engagement with topics.
• Focuses on design technologies, with special reference to digital technologies. • Features a comprehensive array of contextual examples for teaching design and technology to children from birth to twelve years • Includes both essential theory and practical ideas, to prepare students for teaching design and technology education
WEBSITE www.cambridge.edu.au/academic/technologies A set of Teaching Support Slides which include: • Support slides for each chapter, summarising the book’s content and stimulating discussion for lectures and tutorials • Links to video material to complement the content in the book • Thought-provoking questions to present to students to encourage critical thinking • Extra activities to aid students’ understanding of important topics.
DATE PUBLISHED: May 2016 FORMAT: Paperback* ISBN: 9781107561564 * also available as an eBook
www.cambridge.org/techforchildren
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CONTENTS
Marilyn Fleer is the Foundation Chair of Early Childhood Education at Monash University, Victoria.
Part 1: Researching ‘What is Technology and Technologies Education’
Torn between studying psychology and education as an undergraduate, Professor Marilyn Fleer ended up choosing early childhood education, a nascent field that straddled both her areas of interest. She hasn’t looked back since. As soon as she got into early childhood education she enjoyed it, Marilyn says. “I found it intellectually stimulating, and there’s plenty of scope for making a difference with my research.” She is now studying the early stages of concept formation – and how playtime can help promote children’s imagination, and the more ‘rational’ thinking later on as adults. With the push for greater outcomes from very young children, particularly in literacy and numeracy, Marilyn’s field of research is gaining public and international interest. 6
1. The contexts of technologies and technological knowledge 2. Key ideas in the technologies curriculum 3. Designing and creating preferred futures 4. Creativity in design Part 2: The Curriculum in Action 5. The Curriculum in Action- Digital Technologies 6. Technologies Contexts- Food and Fibre Production and Food Specialisations 7. Technologies Contexts- Engineering Principles and Systems, and Materials and Technology Specialisations 8. The Curriculum in Action- Project Management Part 3: Pedagogical Practices for Technologies 9. Planning, Assessment and Evaluation in Technologies 10. Planning for teaching Technologies: Analysing the Pedagogical Approaches
Part 1 Researching ‘What is Technology and Technologies Education’
Chapter 1 The contexts of technologies and technological knowledge
7
Computer technologies
Preferred futures • What technological experiences do children have at home prior to beginning school and later during their school years? • How might these experiences influence their technological thinking about the future? • Children’s thinking about the future is discussed on pages 75–8. Ben’s thinking is part of Figure 3.3. ØHow might his views have been formed? ØHow might you work with his ideas? ØHow can you engage him in preferred futures thinking?
In 1976 Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs successfully launched Apple Computer I (or Apple I), yet neither of them had a university degree. They began a business in Jobs’ garage bringing the computer to market. Wozniak has described himself as a natural risk taker and ‘just a good engineer, doing what I was meant to do in life’ (Wozniak, cited in Leyden 2008, p. 101). Since leaving the company in 1987, Wozniak has taught for eight years in primary schools, written an autobiography, developed and brought to market the first universal TV remote control, and helped float a technology development company. He says he is only interested in technology for the masses, and believes that anyone can be a technologist. However, he advises would-be entrepreneurs against starting a company with just a good idea, because the ability to build the technology is equally important. Because of Bill Gates’ vision of the personal computer, Microsoft became a leading computer and software company, making him one of the richest men in the world almost overnight. Gates also imagined what was to become the internet revolution, and in 1996 he radically reinvented his company around the internet. During Gates’ time as a student at Lakeside School in Seattle, the Mothers’ Club did some fundraising to provide a computer terminal and computer time for students. Gates wrote his first software program, for playing tic-tac-toe, when he was 13 years old. The computer was huge and cumbersome and writing the program was slow because there was no screen with the computer terminal. After typing the moves on a typewriter-style keyboard, Gates and his friends had to wait until the results sluggishly emerged from a printer before they could decide on the next move. Gates recalls:
Figure 1.3 Digital technologies increase access to new ways of thinking, being and working
A game of tic-tac-toe that would take thirty seconds with a pencil and paper might
Although the above examples relate to information technology, it is possible to notice that science, technology and engineering are needed, and in the real world these often overlap. We can also see that there are different types of STEM professionals needed in information technology development (see Figure 1.3), and these professionals work together when testing devices and materials to determine which are most suitable for the realisation of their designs.
eat up most of a lunch period. But who cared? There was just something neat about the machine. I realized later that part of the appeal must have been that here was an enormous, expensive, grown-up machine and we, the kids, could control it. We were too young to drive or do any of the other things adults could have fun at, but we could give this big machine orders and it would always obey. (Gates, 1996, pp. 1–2)
Biomimetics
Games technologies Game pioneer Allan Alcorn, the designer of the world’s first popular video game (in 1972), was a junior engineer at Atari and his first task was meant merely to test his skills. However, the result was ‘Pong’, an electronic table-tennis game that led the way for modern video games. In contrast to coin-operated pinball machines, Pong was a social game that required two players, and it was the first game that appealed to young females. Alcorn said:
The new field of biomimetics, which mimics designs in nature, points to future directions in engineering. Some examples follow.
Biomimetics – Velcro® technology The narrative of the founder of the product Velcro®, George de Mestral, is a good starting point for a discussion of biomimetics. He trained as an electrical engineer, and was fond of hunting in the lower slopes of the Jura Mountains in Switzerland. De Mestral’s grandson said: ‘Everyone remarked that he was often lost in his own world. In that “own world” of his he was on the lookout for fasteners’ (Forbes, 2006, p. 94). De Mestral was motivated by the frustration of trying to fasten the hooks and eyes on his wife’s evening dresses. Not wanting to be late for social functions,
I enjoy talking about the early days of video games and the fun we had. Perhaps I can inspire a young person to get involved in science and technology. Video games are part of a worldwide culture and as such we need to understand where it came from and where it is going. I hope that as a medium for entertainment it will add to the public good. (Alcorn, cited in Parker and King, 2008, p. 29)
9781107561564c01_p1-34.indd 6
3/2/2016 9:07:18 PM
9781107561564c01_p1-34.indd 7
3/2/2016 9:07:18 PM