In the centre, another non-digital technology the children
use is the coloured pencils. The coloured pencils we have come in all ranges of
colours which the children use every day to draw, colour and create art. Children
use the coloured pencils all throughout the day, drawing pictures of objects,
food, places, people, animals and pictures of themselves. The children in my
centre are very creative, and when it comes to drawing they are true artists. Through the use of coloured pencils (Somerset, 2007) says that children develop fine motor skills as well as hand and eye co-ordination. Children
put such detail into their work where they colour and make their plain piece of
paper stand out with bright vibrant colours with pictures of all sorts of
things they love and take interest in. Language that indicates the subtleties of
visual arts works such as lines, shapes, colour and texture can be introduced
to children when it is linked to what they are observing or making (Isenberg
& Jalongo, 2009). When children are drawing or colouring in their pictures,
I take great interest in the way they are colouring in and comment on their
work. This lets them know I am interested in what they are doing and paying
attention to the way they are colouring in, such as seeing the different shades
of colours they are using on the picture they have drawn. Technology is a
useful tool in early childhood learning environments that employ emergent
curriculum approaches and the use of technology in early childhood settings
enables teachers to easily tailor the curriculum to meet individual children’s
needs (Talay-Ongan & Ap, 2005).
With the coloured pencils, children can also use them for
writing, where they may write their name or write a massage for their friend or
family. Te Whāriki (1996)
states that children gain experience in using communication technologies such
as crayons, paintbrushes and pencils. By using coloured pencils, children are able to express thoughts and feeling through their drawings. When children have written their messages
or drawn their pictures, they would go and show a teacher and start talking
about what they have made. With some children who are shy, teacher would ask
them what they have made on their paper. Children are experiencing an environment that provides opportunities for them to develop language skills as they interact in meaningful conversations with teachers (Ministry of Education, 1996). We enjoy asking children about what they
have drawn or written as there may be a story behind it. When children have
told us about their picture or story we record what they have said and document
it through learning stories which are placed in their folder and displayed in
the room along with their picture or writing. Art is important for the young
children’s development as they offer unique avenues for exploration and representation,
to our way of thinking, art encompasses seeing, looking, perceiving, and making
new cognitive connections (Talay-Ongan & Ap, 2005).
Drawing and writing is a form of communication as in the past
people did not have pencils or pens, so they would have drawn with rocks and other
tools. As technology has evolved we have as well. We no longer use rocks or
ancient tools to draw or write to represent stories, as humans wanted to improve the form of communicational tools and so they did (Smorti,1999) by developing pens, pencils,
paint and other tools to draw and communicate with. 
The New Zealand Curriculum (2007), states that it aims for
individuals to develop a broad technological literacy that will equip them for
future so they can participate in society as informed citizens. In my centre
the one and only piece of digital technology which the children love the most
and enjoy playing around with is the Radio CD player. The Radio CD player has
to be the only digital technology which the children are able to play and
explore with. As any other sort of digital technology which other centres provide
for their children, is unavailable for ours, which is why we are working on
this and trying to bring more digital technology into the hands of our young
children.
What I have noticed the children doing with the Radio CD player
is pretty much learning how to use it. They press all the buttons the Radio CD player
may have, and try to play and listen to all the songs in the CD case. They may
not get time to listen to every song in one day, but they always have the next
day to come back and continue on where they finished off.
Children learn to use technology for different purposes as
they explore their world (Ministry of Education, 1996). There are a few things
children can use the Radio CD player for; they can use it to play music, where
they can dance and have a party with their friends. Research has shown that music,
movement, and dance are ways to enrich the brain which strengthens and provides
a unique form of cognitive stimulation (Isenberg & Jalongo, 2010).
Children can also use it to play stories where they can connect the headphones
and listen to during quiet time. They can turn on the radio and tune it to a
radio station where they can hear about the news and what is happening in the
community. Children enjoy playing and learning how to work the Radio CD player,
as it is something they have control of. They get to pick what music they want and
play it when they want which is something they have an advantage of. 
Through observation, in my centre I have noticed one area in
which children have participated in using non-digital technology on a daily
basis. This area is the carpentry table and the piece of technology children
use is the hammer. The hammer is a non-digital technology and it is a tool
children enjoy using. As stated in Smorti (1999), the hammer is a type of technology
which helps people to solve problems. With this tool children are able to hammer
in nails to pieces of wood and other materials to build, construct and create,
objects, sculptures, pieces of art and other sorts of tools and technology. 
What I have noticed children doing with the hammer is that
they do not learn how to use it first. What they do is that they just grab the
hammer closer to where the handle and the head of the hammer join, and they
bang, bang, bang away onto every piece of wood on the table. If children find
it difficult hammering the nails onto wood, they are provided with plastic
bottle lids which help with keeping the nails up. This makes it easier for the
children to hammer the nails onto the pieces of wood, and slowly learn how to
control the hammer and focus on the nail.
The learning children develop from this is that they become
a person who can do things alone and develop a sense of autonomy or
accomplishment (Somerset, 2007). When hammering nails into wood, a child is
altering things and feels some kind of control over them, where initiative is
stimulated and the concept of self grows (Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett &
Farmer, 2008). Children are also learning about what a hammer can do for
them, such as fixing a problem; this problem can be anything that they can find
in the centre or at home. They can learn that a hammer can fix a loose nail
popping out and hammer it back into place on a fence, table, chair or bed and
that these things can also be built using a hammer. The use of technology is
that it enables children to understand the different purposes of many materials
and the various places and settings it may be used (Ministry of Education,
1996). The history behind the hammer is that it has evolved through the years
and changed in time. Halvorson (2007),
states that, many years ago people used rocks and stones as a tool to construct
and fix things, but to this day in many cultures rocks and stones are still
used instead of the hammer. Children are learning to understand how technology
was used by different people and in different times and how it has evolved and
is still evolving (Ministry of Education, 2007).
