CD Player

In this twentieth century the use of CD player and digital device is very common and we have this kind of CD player in our centre and the teachers play music everyday using this device. From what I see, this CD player is indeed very handy to have in our centre because children love to dance once we put music on. The teachers had a big discussion on where they can place this player so that the children can also operate it under supervision. So they ended up putting it outside near the wall where we have placed the musical instruments for the children to operate and plugged in the wires of the CD player safe from children’s reach. In this way we considered the children’s safety by assuring that the wire of the player is running through the wall beyond the reach of the children. The Ministry of Education (1996) also agrees that “children experience an environment where they are kept safe from harm” (p.52). So when ever this CD player is on, a teacher is in the music corner supervising, facilitating, dancing and becoming involved in this joyous moment together. Thus I think we need to be a bit cautious about digital devices like this CD player is quite big and sometimes children move it and experiment how is operates, so our precautions and guidance is supporting children to be safe and letting them explore this new technology alongside the teachers. The Ministry of Education (2007) also elaborates on this further that children learn about technology as a field of human activity and through experiencing (p. 32).    

The impact of having this CD player in the centre was having a happy environment where children got so busy in singing and moving their bodies according to the beats of the songs that plays on CD. This technology helped solved our problem (Smorti, 1999) of having music sessions for however long the children wished to have, rather than teachers losing their voices. But the teachers also carry out music sessions with children, where we do sing with them. We are trying to keep a balance of recorded music and singing with the children. But if the children still want to dance or hear music than we use this technology which can keep playing as long as they wished to be involved. The staffs would also bear this in mind to limit the time for the CD player to be on for an hour, so that we have a balanced approach to recorded voices and real voices as I also help to contribute by playing guitar and singing song with the children.

This device also helps us to inform children through music that it is tidy up time rather than calling each child again and again. So through the help of this CD player we get this opportunity to play tidy time up song, which goes like this (Hey everybody what time is it, clean up time, clean up time). This song keeps on going until the children have finished cleaning with the teachers. So I think that this strategy is good and really works for the children in our centre and saves the teacher’s time in going and calling children and informing them that it’s tidy up time. At the same time the lyrics of the song is very pleasant and the tune is like a hip hop song which encourages children  to start singing or mumble words as they clean up. This helps children to strengthen their cognitive skills and also learn new songs, words, lyrics, sounds and tune by listening to the CD player. Isenberg and Jalongo (2006) also agrees with me that, “music contributes to the child’s total development: psychomotor, perceptual, affective, cognitive, social, cultural and aesthetic” (p. 146). So because of this technology (CD Player) children are benefiting and building upon their knowledge about music.

References:

Isenberg, J. P., & Jalongo, M. R. (2006). Understanding children’s creative thought and expression.  In Creative thinking and arts-based learning: Preschool through fourth grade (4 ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.

Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media Limited.

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He Whāriki Mātauranga mō ngā Mokopuna o Aotearoa. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media Limited.

Smorti, S. (1999) Technology in early childhood. Early Education, 1, 5-10.