Take my picture
I notice that the use of the camera by the children themselves to take pictures is an effective digital technology that motivates the children to explore, develop stories and make connections. These are three significant aspects in children’s learning. The children initiate an open and confident exploration; this builds their self-confidence in taking pictures and expresses their fascination in captivating pictures that interest them the most.
While the children were playing with the camera to take pictures outdoors, A. comes across with a rolling baby cot and B. takes a picture and shouts out, “stop, I want to take a picture of my baby brother.” A. stops rolling the baby cot car and says, it is my baby.” When the children finished taking pictures outside, we take the camera memory, print pictures and display them on the walls.
How does taking pictures affect the children’s learning?
Explore
When the children use the camera to take pictures of the outdoors, they explore the natural world and this
influences them to develop their understanding of how beautiful the natural world is as well as connecting them to the natural world. Picturing the beautiful trees gives the children the opportunity to explore and improve their photographic skills, such as zooming the camera on to a spot and flashing the camera to take a picture. After taking the pictures, the children reviewed the pictures on the camera and this showed them where they went wrong (thumb in front of the lens, blurry and out of focus). Learning from your mistakes is an important part of development.
While they flipped back all the pictures they have taken, they learned ho
w the camera works and the names of the different camera parts. I think the camera is a useful resource for children’s development as Smorti (1999, p.7) says that “early childhood centers needed to provide opportunities for children to explore technology.”
w the camera works and the names of the different camera parts. I think the camera is a useful resource for children’s development as Smorti (1999, p.7) says that “early childhood centers needed to provide opportunities for children to explore technology.”
Develop stories
After taking pictures, the children initiate their developing stories by looking and reviewing the pictures that they have taken. They revisit their learning experiences and develop their stories from different shots they have taken outdoors. As they share their conversation about the pictures in the camera, I notice that this digital camera influenced the cognitive skills of the children to re-think back; captured the memories and developed their stories from them. Smorti (1999) says that introducing technology is about changing attitudes; I think these children are adopting positive attitudes towards the use of camera. As a result of creating and exchanging different stories developed from their photos, the children improve their language skills.
Make connections
I noticed the camera connected the children to others: their families and the community. When child B asks to take a picture of his baby brother, he builds a sense of belonging where he develops a connection between his home and the centre through his brother at home (Ministry of Education, 1996). I recognized that in this case, this digital camera brought the child’s home environment to the centre which promotes the continuation of learning from home to the centre. Smorti (1999, p.6) says that “technology is influenced by the culture or the society in which it occurs.”
I shall repeat this learning experience because it is important to extend the children’s use of technology. The New Zealand Curriculum says that there is an alignment between the early childhood setting and the school’s setting: exploration by children in their early years develops their thinking abilities ready for when they attend schools (Ministry of Education, 2007). Exploration with the camera developed the children’s technical skills and their language skills while promoting a positive attitude to learning.
References
Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa : Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.
Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.
Smorti, S. (1999, Autumn) Technology in early childhood. Early Education, 19.
Fantastic reflection Lau. Nice to see you view the influence of technology and its' imapact to children's learning.Extending children's learning is very important not only reviewing our plans and activities but also reflecting back to what is our perspectives we assume in the first scene.
ReplyDeleteGood relation of your practice to strands of Te Whariki. Yes it is right that we have to look at the child holistically and nice that you considered child's perspectives. Another aspect that I really like is the way you relate the New Zealand curriculum to your philosophy and tried to implement these in your teaching. It's good that you identify the connection,exploration and developing stories to technology. Yeah language is one huge concept of connection to technology whis you have considered: great: Ka pai Toelau. Its good that you have a wide understanding of the impact of technology to children's learning.
Hi Toelau, I have to say that this reflection of yours is very meaningful and has alot of positive outcomes. For instance, children learnt alot of things from this piece of technology. the activity was fun for the children, and they learnt skills such as language skills and so forth. Your links to literature is great and it is very clear to me that children learn and develop through different ways because of this technology. They learn to be creative, they learn from their mistakes, they learn to do a few things differently next time and that's what technology is about. You have to experiment, make mistakes and explore until you end up with a product or solution that is satisfying and productive. Great work Toelau. I also admire how technology does not remain in your centre only, but children are able to take it with them to their homes. This helps to build and maintain relationships not only the relationship between the children and their parents, but between the parents and the staff as well. This is one of the positive outcomes of technology with this activity.
ReplyDeleteKia Ora Lau
ReplyDeleteWow! I agree. Yes Lau I definitely hundred percent agree of what you said about the use of digital camera in children’s learning. Children easily connected to each other by sharing knowledge in showing each other skills from photos that they have taken in their learning process. Using camera for children’s learning will also exposed to parents and communities of their findings in which they were working on during their learning hours at the centre.
Seeing children’s works in photos is very important to the centre to show out to the parents how they children learning process occur. It is also helped to clarify children’s ideas and knowledge by taking photos of different shots of what they find. Children also define what they have been discovered and make up some interesting stories related to their findings. They also use their finding photos to put in their portfolios for their parents and whanau to see.
Very interesting, Ka Pai!!!
Kia Ora Lau
ReplyDeleteWow! I agree. Yes Lau I definitely hundred percent agree of what you said about the use of digital camera in children’s learning. Children easily connected to each other by sharing knowledge in showing each other skills from photos that they have taken in their learning process. Using camera for children’s learning will also exposed to parents and communities of their findings in which they were working on during their learning hours at the centre.
Seeing children’s works in photos is very important to the centre to show out to the parents how they children learning process occur. It is also helped to clarify children’s ideas and knowledge by taking photos of different shots of what they find. Children also define what they have been discovered and make up some interesting stories related to their findings. They also use their finding photos to put in their portfolios for their parents and whanau to see.
Very interesting, Ka Pai!!!
I agree that digital camera is a very effective technology tool for young children’s learning. Learning is a process that involves thoughts, visions and imagination. When children look through digital camera, they see the world from a different view point. They see the things, people and events around them from the view point of an audience not that of a participant. This permits them to think and act in ways different from what they normally do. Initially, when a child gets hold of a camera, she/he will try to take a snap of just about everything he comes across. Agreed, these photographs may end up looking blurred and messy but with time, a child will pick up the nuances of the art of photography. As a child experiments with different shots, he/she will learn the difference that light, shadows, colour and background can make to an image. For instance, a child learn that a single red rose looks beautiful against an elegant and understated background, not against a bright and messy ones. All good Lau! Mama noa iho!
ReplyDeleteHi, I was just scrolling through all the blogs seeing which I haven't read yet and came across this one. I really enjoy reading about the experiences that everyone in the group has with digital cameras in their centre! As I have stated before we don't really have a lot of cameras at my centre so a lot of the time children don't get to have these experiences that you all allow for your children in your centre. I really see the benefits of it though from reading your blog and the from the links to literature you have put in your blog.
ReplyDeleteI am interested to use these experiences in my own centre and see what types of photos and experiences come from letting the children using cameras in the centre, I find it is something I wish to promote more. I really liked your observations of the children without interference. The tendency is to be with the child constantly ensuring they don't drop it or break it for example so by allowing free play like that I admire the trust you have in the children and this is reflected in the way in which they engage in their play and the learning they gain from these experiences. They are growing up as confident and competent learners as we all know is stated in Te Whariki :) Ka Pai :D