Complications for young students ("A" Posting)

The article is about young students (kindergarten and first grade) who are being introduced to technology. It covers the topic of how early on should students be taught to type properly on keyboards and use computers. Will teaching them how to properly type on a keyboard hurt their hand-eye coordination? Also, keyboards are too large for the younger student's little hands. The article also skims that idea that if computers are used to write, the student's writing ability will be hurt.
I chose this article because it starts to answer my previous question that I posted. My question was, when are students too young to be using technology on their own in class? It does not completely answer the question, but now I can look for more articles to continue answering the question. The article does not give a specific age, but it does touch on the complications younger students would have with computers. I will look for more articles on this question, but this article was a good start.
"Kindergarten Keyboarding" By: Lauren Barack

Lesson Plans ("B" Posting)

In my Introduction to Education class, I have to do a lesson plan for a first grade classroom. I want to use technology in some way, and I have been coming up with all types of ideas. My final idea, I think, is to use powerpoint in an interactive, hands-on way. I am going to use the endings of words, probably "i-c-e", and allow the students to come up and hold big letters and make different words. I'll put a picture of dice on the powerpoint with "_ice" and they will have to pick the letter "d" to make the word.
As I have been setting up this project, I have learned that using the overhead and powerpoint, I can show a larger presentation than I would have been able with a posterboard. The challenges I am having is what the other children will do while the one child is up at the front picking out letters. I think I will have some sort of worksheet so they can follow along. I have learned that I can use technology with first graders, even as a group. I feel like I am finally overcoming my technology "fear".

eBook Project ("B" Posting)

In my Introduction to Computers for Education class, we have been experimenting with eBooks. eBooks are narrated and animated stories you can play on the computer. We had to rate 5 different eBooks, and then later on we had to show two of them to a child. I chose my cousins to read the books to, and she really enjoyed it. She thought her teacher should use them in the classroom.
What I learned from this activity would be that teaching can be enhanced with technology. Teachers should not be scared of using computers with their students. One challenge that I found with this project is that some students may rely on the narration too much and would lack in their reading. As a result, the only way to overcome that challenge would be that students should continue to read real storybooks, too. I learned that I shouldn't be scared to try new things with students. Sometimes I'm wary when it comes to technology...

Too young? ("E" post)

I did a classroom observation the other day at a local elementary school. I was observing a kindergarten classroom who were at a lower reading level. They were using computers to practice reading comprehension. I would walk around and watch the students interact with the computers, and most of them were doing fine. A few of the students were not concentrating and seemed too immature to be using the computer on their own. This raises the question, when is a student too young to be introduced to technology?