Abstract:

The project arose from the need to make the latest motivational element in the preschool classroom dynamic: the interactive digital blackboard or interactive whiteboard (IWB). This awakens the need to encourage in our preschool students a respectful and critical use of the internet. The project took place in 2 classes with the level corresponding to 4 year olds (25 and 26 students respectively) from the public, pre and grade; school CEIP Joan Miró at Leganés in Madrid (Spain). During the school year 2011-2012, we collectively made a classroom blog complemented with a wiki as an open resource to our compiled material. The blog “La voz del dragón: ALFIN en Educación Infantil” (The voice of the dragon: Information Literacy in pre-school education), was created in November 2011 with the objective of motivating and exposing the students to new technology and the use of digital language. http://alfin-educacioninfantil.blogspot.com.es/

Our approach to the classroom is based on various research projects focused on constructivism. In order to tackle the development of the classroom blog, specific moments within the given class hours were planned: computer workshops ICT-CSCL (from the Information and Communication Technology to Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning), digital reading and writing workshops and group games by way of ICT. Experimentation, individual or in pairs, guided by the teacher either for ICT, Web resources or technological tools necessary for making entries in the blog (design tools, audiovisual production and editing images and audio), formed part of the regular classroom dynamics.

Our objectives were the following: digital alphabetization of our students (Information Literacy –IL-); to strengthen the use of different languages; promoting in the children to respect and value the work of the diverse authors consulted; respecting authorship and citing the information sources; to generate an awareness in the children of the necessity to avoid plagiarism and the importance of recognizing the contributions of each author; to highlight the importance of making our work visible and the making of materials which can be shared with the rest of the community; to assume responsibility in our roles as authors, as active members of the contents shared in the Internet; to show the importance that each and every one of us has in the development and advancement a collective knowledge, because everyone has something to contribute and to have the capability of enjoying in the elaboration process and sharing with others.

We give great importance to the awareness and value the possible risks Internet use could have on minors and try to minimize them such as orientation sessions, information dissemination to the students and their families. Also the children must be taught awareness of their critical/analytical role as consumers and contributors of Internet content. This work was done within the framework of the international cooperation project AECID B/030048/10.

Keywords:

Preschool Education, Blog, Wiki, Information Technology, IT, ICT, Information Literacy, IL, ALFIN, Cooperative Learning, CSCL, BPL, Web 2.0.