On the 28th August 2015 I brought in my own
personal camera for my planned provocation with a young toddler called *Faith who
showed interest in camera’s early that week. I turned on the camera and placed
it on the table next to *Faith in the hope she would feel invited to play with
it. *Faith instantly showed an interest and picked up the camera, slotted her
wrist through the safety cord and begin snapping photos. Thankfully, she was
the only toddler in the room meaning she was not interrupted and I allowed her
to use the camera for whatever means she wanted. I wanted her to spend as much
time as she wished exploring the buttons of the camera and attempting to talk
photos of things in the room that intrigued her. She spent a total of 15
minutes walking around the room talking photos and often stopped in-front of me
saying “cheese” holding the camera upwards to take photos of me and a small
infant. After talking a photo of something she would giggle and say “camera”.
This planned provocation
integrated both technology and social studies into the educational setting. It
allowed*Faith to show her brief understanding of the name of the technology,
how to use it and her knowledge of simple social connotations that go along
with using a camera. This allowed me to see that *Faith had built her knowledge
of camera’s prior to me offering her this experience and this knowledge is most
likely to have been gained through experiences in *Faith’s home life ( Berk,
2010). As teachers, it is important to remember that by providing experiences where
“children’s real-world knowledge and experiences are included in the classroom,
children are likely to have the opportunity to demonstrate their competencies
and to bridge to new knowledge so that they become insiders in the classroom”
(Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett & Farmer, 2012, p49). Not only was *Faith
able to integrate her home life experiences into her educational setting but
she has learnt and developed the ability to recognize and pronounce words that
relate to the experience which is a valuable part of becoming a participating member
of her community and culture (Arthur et al, 2012).
By placing the camera on a table near *Faith and
leaving it there without supervision, allowed*Faith to feel invited and welcome
to explore the device for herself and through this placement her curiosity and
wonder was stimulated (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009). This experience
allowed *Faith to acquire, practice and consolidate her physical skills, both
large and fine motor, helped her develop a sense of mastery and control of her
environment while promoting her sense of competence, well-being and her self-esteem
( MacNaughton & Williams, 2009). By allowing *Faith to use a camera in a
new environment, I am offering *Faith the opportunity to think critically and
judiciously about technology incorporation and opening up opportunities for
further understandings of technology through questioning and discussions
(Gullo, n.d.).
As a result from *Faith’s interest in camera’s, I have
spent the weekend going through all my old cellphones so that I can take these
in for the toddlers in my room to explore. Each is very different and will
offer the toddlers many opportunities to form knowledge and understanding of
different technology from different time eras and how it has evolved. From this
planned provocation, I have also been inspired to start a photography project
with the toddlers to help them discover the world in a new way as well as
learning another means of self- expression and art form. I am looking forward
to the endless possibilities that digital technologies can bring to our
children.
References:
Arthur, L., Beecher, B., Death, E., Dockett, S.,
& Farmer, S. (2012). Programming and Planning in the Early Childhood
Settings. South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Cengage Learning Australia
Pty Limited.
Berk,
L. E. (2010). Development through the lifespan. Boston, MA, USA:
Pearson Education.
Gullo,
D. F. (n.d.). Social Studies in Kindergarten. In D. F. Gullo, K today
teaching and learning in the kindergarten year (pp. 107-115). Washington,
DC, USA: National Association for the education of young children.
MacNaughton,
G., & Williams, G. (2009). Techniques for Teaching Young Children:
Choices for Theory and Practice. Frenchs Forest, NSW, Australia: Pearson
Education Australia.
-The images below were taken by *Faith during her experiences with the camera, permission has been gained from parents for use of images with children but faces have been blurred to further protect their identities.
-The images below were taken by *Faith during her experiences with the camera, permission has been gained from parents for use of images with children but faces have been blurred to further protect their identities.
Great experience and good to see that you have integrated a lot of literature into your practice to support your actions. It’s nice to see that you allowed Faith the freedom to explore the camera and everything that it does and not having a time limit to ensure endless possibilities. It’s amazing to see that you have not only focused on the cameras themselves as a learning opportunity but everything that came from this one activity by linking the experience to fine motor skills, her sense of confidence, and finding her place in the world. By incorporating your idea of bringing in technologies of different areas and linking their learning into social studies is great to help a child their way in the world and where they fit in.
ReplyDeleteBecause you had a one on one experience with Faith I think that this would have influenced a lot on the learning that was taking place. Because you had one on one interactions you were able to have more discussions and opportunities to teach Faith more about technology.
An idea of how you could share the experience that Faith had with others could be presenting her photos around the room to spark the interest with other children. Have you thought about what could happen if you involved more children into the experience or if you would revisit the experience again and maybe making a project out of it to extend their knowledge?
From what you have written and the areas that you have explored, I think that you have done an amazing job in supporting your belief that technology has a benefit in early childhood centres. My idea that children don’t need technology has begun to change because you have explored the areas that it can affect. So thank you Tegan. :)
I love the idea that you left the camera in reach of Faith, so she could explore it by herself, and the idea of her not having interruptions from other children made this experience so much more special. Would be interesting on what technology Faith uses at home and if she gets to use phones, cameras etc to explore and take photos with.
ReplyDeleteI love that you have started looking at more ways of extending the children with their digital experiences, you could also bring this from home and get families in on the project too, with children taking their own photos at home and getting them emailed or printed off and brought in to share with their friends and the rest of the centre staff, bringing your project right into the social world and exploring different ways of sharing them. I was thinking about making books with all their photos into it so they can look through and share their stories over and over again. We all know a photo can say a thousand words and children love to tell stories.
I love this experience with Faith and hope i can get something like this working in my centre with the toddlers, reading this gives me hope it can work :)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete