Kindergarten kids are having a "Digital Adventure" class

Making the morning frost disappear, children head to their kindergarten. Dressed brightly in pink, blue and green, they look like winter flowers. Forming misty clouds non-stop with their breaths, they seem to be talking about something because I could see their mouths move behind their scarves that look frosty ... Anyways, I can see that the children are happy to come to their kindergarten. None of them throws a tearful tantrum or displays separation anxiety when their parents leave. It looks like they already know that this is the place where they are supposed to go: they say goodbye to their parents, look back once to wave and then go in. Apparently, these children love to come here; it must be the place that they feel comfortable.        

This place, where I have come to spend a day with some of the youngest students in the country, is Kindergarten No. 290 in Khan-Uul District of the capital city of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar. As I go in through the door, a young teacher with smiling eyes greets me and introduces herself: Davaadolgor is her name.  

 We go upstairs and go into “Preschool Group A”. A table was set up in the middle of the classroom and the children were seated there. I come closer and greet them. “Hello. Did you have a good rest?" they greet me back all at once cheerfully. The teacher is already prepared to start the class. I sit somewhere behind the kids. The teacher gets the girl named Enkh-khuslen to stand beside her and invites the rest of them to say which one of them is shorter and which taller. The teacher explains the kids that this is a language development class and that the kids will learn synonyms and antonyms. Then she lets the kids watch a cartoon on TV. The kids remain very attentive watching the cartoon. Turns out it is a content produced by Mongolians. The main character of this cartoon named “Digital Adventure” is a girl named Jijgee. The cartoon perfectly illustrates synonyms and antonyms and is perfectly understandable for children. After the kids finished watching the cartoon, the teacher asks them what they understood and they all race to answer. The teacher approves their answers by saying, "Good job!" and then invites them to play a game. As soon as she said that, the kids shout with joy. Some are clapping their hands. But they do not get up from their seats. The teacher presses one of the buttons on her notebook and there goes an exercise where the kids are asked to match pictures showing opposites. The game consists of several rounds and the kids get praised and congratulated whenever they do it right.

That’s how I got familiar with the “Digital Adventure” class. Delighted with what I’ve witnessed, I decided to make it the main theme of my interview and quickly google it. These “cute” lessons have been co-created by the Ministry of Education and Science and UNICEF. Turns out a total of 184 interactive lessons have been uploaded on medle.mn platform. After the class, I get to know the teacher a little more and talk with her for a few minutes. 

Reporter: Hello? Would you please introduce yourself to our audience?

Teacher: Hello. My name is Davaadolgor Batkhuyag. I graduated the School of Preschool Education at the Mongolian National University of Education in 2017 with a Preschool Teacher degree. Now I am a teacher of Preschool Group A at Kindergarten #290. I have been working as a preschool teacher for the fifth year now.

Reporter: I think working at a kindergarten as a teacher is not an easy job. Why did you choose to become a kindergarten teacher?

Teacher: For some reason, I have more vivid memories of my kindergarten years rather than of school. I still haven't forgotten the name and appearance of my kindergarten teacher. I can still remember the scent I felt when I went to the kindergarten as a kid. So, maybe I can say that one special place in my childhood was the kindergarten and a special person in my life was my kindergarten teacher. I have dreamed of becoming a teacher since childhood. I had the opportunity to choose the higher education institution and the major field of study that I would like to pursue because I scored higher in the Mongolian language when I took the general entrance exam in Uvurkhangai province, my home province. When it was time to make a career decision, I consulted with my mother and my class tutor and I chose Kindergarten Teacher as my future career and now I am working hard so I can really take ownership of my career.

Reporter: What do you like about being a kindergarten teacher? 

Teacher: A child is like a blank piece of paper. They have white auras that represent purity. Although we are overcrowded and overworked with more than 60 children in our group, we get energized, have good feelings and meaningful interactions, feel love and other positive things from our children. There is no misunderstanding or miscommunication here. I feel good about teaching at kindergarten because I am surrounded by bright white auras everyday.

Reporter: Everyone, including college students and school children, big and small, are all away on their winter holiday during these cold winter months. But only our kids still going to their kindergarten and are studying hard. Are they doing well academically?

Teacher: It is true that only the small ones are attending their kindergartens during this time (she laughs). Originally, we had 68 kids enrolled in our group. On a normal day, we have more than 50 kids in attendance. It’s like there is a lot of them and we don’t have enough room for them. But, when it’s a winter holiday, many children stay at home with their brothers and sisters. Therefore, the number of children in attendance goes down drastically. Today, for instance, we only have 11 children attending. How many kids we have in attendance is not that important. Even if we have smaller number of children attending classes, we still work with them and carry on our teaching and other activities.   

Reporter: You were using a digital content in your teaching. In relation to the digital transformation of education sector, we have been emphasizing digital/virtual classes in schools. Is it now a case that you also use digital tools in kindergartens?

Teacher: Yes, nowadays, it is considered outdated if we teach children in a way that they get to use a piece of paper and a pen only. The traditional way of teaching/learning is now avoided, and the combination of classroom and digital learning/teaching is being implemented at all levels. In recent years, we have been using tele-courses and "Digital Adventure" interactive series in our teaching. Children's preferences have also been changing along with the developments in technology. Whether we like it or not, we need to get prepared and teach lessons in a digital environment.

Reporter: Can you please tell us about the digital teaching tools that you use?

Teacher: As for me, I have been using the "Digital Adventure" interactive series as a resource for the last 2 years. Interactive learning/teaching can be described as a child-centered approach that increases children's participation. These series have 2 parts: cartoons and games. For instance, today, I taught my class using an interactive learning/teaching tool titled, “Is it a synonym or an antonym?”. The cartoon is about a girl who visits a zoo with her mother. While visiting, they watch and compare animals, describing and differentiating between them using such words as big, small, tall, short, fat, and thin. So, I don’t have to draw big or small images on pieces of papers to explain the opposites. Rather, I just allow them to watch a cartoon; it’s something they love doing. Children gain understanding and knowledge by watching the cartoon; they talk to each other and exchange information. When the cartoon is over, there are games for them to play to enhance their understanding. Children reinforce the knowledge they acquired by themselves and play interesting games. They all like it very much. I think the biggest advantage is that the contents of the “Digital Advantage” interactive series are in line with teaching/learning contents and directions approved by the Ministry of Education. The teaching contents are broken down into a calendar schedule. If it says antonyms and synonyms will be introduced during the first week of January, then I use the same content from the “Digital Advantage” interactive series after looking at the content and the learning goals of the lesson. 

Reporter: Looks like they are learning/teaching tools that help ease the work of teachers.

Exactly. Preparing a digital content for a lesson is difficult for teachers in general, not just the kindergarten teachers. We have so much work to do daily: teaching and working with kids under pressure, plus some other paperworks. If we had to prepare and produce digital contents by ourselves, that would acquire extra work and time. Therefore, “Digital Adventure” series are ready-to-use tools that lessen our workload and help us a lot. Even if the teachers had great digital skills and developed their own contents to use for teaching, they wouldn’t beat the digital media professionals to be able to produce any animations or games that interesting.   

Reporter: Kids nowadays are quite exposed to digital environments at home. Having digital classes at the kindergarten is surely interesting. But don’t you think that it would affect them negatively on the other hand?

Teacher: We don’t spend all day having digital classes. Depending on the curriculum content and topics, we have “Digital Adventure” interactive series twice a week on average. One class lasts 20 minutes at maximum. We don’t let children sit idle and watch TV for long. For instance, I have some parts of the “At the Zoo” cartoon content printed on papers to use today. I am using them as a visual aid. Also, I printed out the exercises for observation and matching to give each child as a handout, and they worked on them. This way, I can convert digital tools into classroom materials and use them in many ways and enrich the methodology. At Physical Activity and Health class, we learn the types of crawls and then experiment them. When we have a class on Waste Segregation, for example, we then sort our waste for real. That’s how we combine different techniques and tools for our teaching and learning. Sometimes, I get the children work on the computer directly: I teach them how to use it and we play together. I think that children can learn interacting with technology as early as in kindergarten.

Reporter's note: While I was interviewing the teacher, the children enjoyed their lunch. I also have a bowl of soup with noodles and a bowl of stir-fried rice waiting for me. It’s nap time now. The kids are now making their beds together with the assistant teacher. I remembered I need to take some photos of the teacher and the kids. They went to sleep, and I left to join the “Digital Adventure”.

Written by: Mungunshuuder B.