In my centre we do not have any pieces of technology available for the
children to interact with. I went into my centre this week with an idea to give
the children the teacher’s camera to explore. During mat time I discussed what
we were going to be doing and arranged a list of names to ensure turn taking.
As the children could recognise the names, they would prompt children when it
was their turn. Each child was given two minutes each and I did not give any
directions on how to use the camera but allowed the children to explore on
their own.
When the first child was given the camera they looked at me as if they
were asking for my permission. I explained that they could take photos of
whatever they wanted whether it be inside or outside, photos of their friends
or their toys. Children waiting for their turn were standing ready to pose for
the photo. From the photos taken majority of the children took photos of their
friends while other took pictures of the environment and of children busy in
their play activities. When the children had finished their turn they gave the
camera back and continued with their play. These children no longer posed for
others or asked to use the camera for the remainder of the day. This is
supported by Stephen & Plowman (2013) where children have been seen
abandoning the technology because they lost interest or don’t understand the
rules or how to work the piece of equipment. The children were given a time
frame in which they could take photos but there were children that would take
one photo and give it back to me because they were finished. This may be
because they did not know how to work the camera or they were no longer
interested. From observing these children I could see that the novelty wore off
because they returned to their play and never looked back or wanted to revisit
the experience.
The next day I sat down with the children that didn’t get a turn the
previous day. These children were given advice by others and informed them to
take photos of their friends and their favourite things in the centre. During a
mat time I asked the children what they did, how they felt about the
experience, and what and why they took these specific photos and if they had
any meaning. Child one I asked about his photos. “Black and White” he replied.
From this I could see his interest in the camera itself as he was exploring the
other buttons and explaining the colour of the camera. When I asked child two
what she did with the camera she said “I pushed the button really hard”. This
was said because she observed others taking photos and looking at them
afterwards but didn’t know why she couldn’t see her own. As other children had
more experience with cameras outside of the centre, they told her what she
needed to do. I asked child three what he took photos of and he replied “my
cars because they are my favourite”.
By asking the children to share with others about what they
experienced and learned about the camera, children are learning scaffolding. “The
encouragement by the adult of children to orally report, evaluate, and hence,
learn to reflect on what had happened as they solve their technological
problems” (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009). By reporting, evaluating and
reflecting at mat time with others, the children can discuss with others what
pictures they took and also helping other to find out why their photos didn’t
come out or turned out blurry than others. By revisiting this experience again
with this group of children, they will be able to solve these problems and become
more experienced with the camera (Ministry of Education, 1996).
References
MacNaughton, G., & Williams, G. (2009). Techniques
for teaching young children: choices in theory and practice (3rd ed.).
Frenchs Forrest, Australia: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki. He
Whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum.
Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media Limited.
Stephen, C. & Plowman, L. (2013). Digital
technologies, play, and learning. Early
Childhood Folio, 17(2), 3-8.
Your entry was very insightful. I also did a similar provocation with my children including cameras but approached it slightly differently. After reading your entry I became aware that your centers children lost interest quickly in cameras and the experience you provided. In my opinion, this could be due to the time restrictions you placed on the children in order to enforce turn taking. I think it’s important to remember that a roster system can work well for turn taking but instead of placing a time limit on the children’s experience, allow children to investigate the camera for as long as they like and ask them to pass it on to the next person on the list once they are done. In this way, children may begin to understand how to use the camera better, therefore helping them to remain interested in taking photos and learning about the camera. Another way that you could get more children engaged and involved in the experience is by provoking children a bit better with an appropriate set up instead of just discussing what you are doing with the children. I have found through discussing “what you are doing” with children can often guide children to do what we expect them or want them to do instead of allowing them to make their own assumptions and find their own answers. One way you could provoke children better in the future is through placing photography books, a couple of camera’s and maybe an engaging center piece for children to take photos of on a table as a way of introducing the subject without verbal communication. Once children approach the table you could provoke them further by asking questions such as “What are cameras for?”, “What can we take pictures of with a camera?” and “What do you think the buttons on the camera do?”
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ReplyDeleteJodine, I liked how you had a turn-taking strategy with the camera to make sure that all the children that were interested got a chance to explore with the camera. With the turn-taking strategy, that you came up with, the children recognised their friend’s names and assisted you with being respectful and waited for their turn until they identified their own name on the list. More importantly, you also created a simple but practical experience for the children to learn how to manoeuvre the basics on the centre’s camera. Do you believe that two minutes with the camera was extensive enough for the children?. Additionally, I wonder if you could have prompted them to take pictures while taking a walk outside the centre, do you think your experience have lasted longer?. If they were allowed to take pictures while walking, you would be able to see what they deemed either beautiful or interesting. On the contrary, you learned that the children in your centre considered their friends valuable and they are creating along with capturing memories while they were taking pictures of their centre environment. I personally would have shown the children a child-friendly video on YouTube on how to operate the camera and all the different effects that come along with the camera. For instance, illustrating to the children, the camera is able to also video their environment around them. Furthermore, the girl who realised that in order to get the camera to work, she had to apply pressure to the buttons in order to capture a photograph. This illustrated to me that she has concepts of digital literacy and she has probably been exposed to digital technology many times before (Stephen and Plowman, 2013). I would like know, what do you think you will do better next time if you were to do this learning experience again?. Also what will you do with their pictures that they took, maybe a possible collage?
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