After I took some photos of E, M came and stood beside me: "photos." I assumed that she must want to have a look at the photos that I took so I kneeled down and started showing her all the photos. As Te Whariki stated that teachers need to be sensitive to individul's verbal and non-verbal signals (Ministry of Eudcation, 1996).
She was so cheerful to review all those photos and at the same time, she was trying to touch the camera. I read her non-verbal signal again and realized that she might want to puch the button and take photos. When I passed the camera to her: "Would you like to take some photos, M？" She was so happy and took it over straightaway.
I observed her at the beginning. Obviously she didn't know how to take photos as we never gave camera to those toddlers before. But why not ？ Actually I could let them have access to it and have a hand-on experience as long as I supervise her using it properly (Fleer, 1996)
On the first picture, M was trying to figure out how to use the camera first. I was right there beside her and I thought it would be good to see her exploring it on her own. Then she got frustrated and passed it back to me. I asked her to stand at my right side so that she could see my demonstration clearly. I took a photo together with her so that she knew which button to push.
I left the camera on for her so that it was easy for her to just go and click the button. She went to the doll house and bent down to take a photo of a doll. But unfortunately the lense automatically went back becasue of non-clicks.
The second photo showed that she was pushing the on and off button herself and she did it. The lense came out again. She looked back at me and I could see her big smile."Ka Pai, M!" She felt very proud of herself and just a click, she took a photo. She brought the camera back to me and I reviewed with her. She was jumping up and down to express her excitement. It wasn't a great photo and even it was out of focus and we could hardly see anything, but I totally enjoyed the experience of working alongside her and facilitating her through the whole process. What a wonderful experience! As MacNaughton and Williams (2009) stated that, we should let the children to explore techniques and we work as facilitators alongside them.
L saw what M had done and even took a photo all by herself. She came to me and implied that she wanted to have a turn as well. "I do it." Then I did the same thing as I showed M and now L could try it out. But it seemed that L wasn't really interested in taking photos and she just wanted to have a turn to feel the camera.
The picture above showed that she turned the camera the other way around and she was trying to be in the photo. But that didn't matter at all as long as they both had a great hand-on experience and they explored technology. Hand-on experience is vital during the exploration of technology (Helm & Katz, 2001).
That was such a neat experience for children to gain and for me to facilitate and support them with the camera. I used a range of teaching strategies, such as demonstarting, prasing etc. to scaffold them and encouraged them to learn (Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett & Farmer, 2008).
In this whole learning experience, camera as a learning tool and faciliator played such a vital role in children's learning and development. Both M and L explored around it and tried out different ways to play with it. They used their own working theories to test, feel and learn (MOE, 1996). They were thinking and doing problem-solving. They were using eye-hand coordination to gain a new skill. They were linking their previous knowledge with the current situation.
From this experience on, they could feel quite confident and confotable to take photos next time as they both had a chance to see how it worked. For M, I'm sure that when she sees teachers or her parents taking photos next time, it would remind her of this experience and she can be quite confident to try to take photos herself. She could link this learning to her real life experience. It also helped her to build up very positive learning dispositions, such as playfulness, curiosity and confidence (Scholl, 2005).
References:
Arthur, L., Beecher, B., Death, E., Dockett, S., & Farmer, S., (2008). Programming and planning in early childhood settings (4th ed.). Victoria, Australia: CENGAGE Learning.
Fleer, M. (1996). Science for children: developing a personal approach to teaching. Australia: Prentice Hall.
Helm, J., & Katz, L., (2001). Young investigators the project approach in the early years. New York: Teachers College Press.
MacNaughton, G., & Williams, G., (2009). Techniques for teaching young children: Choices in theory and practice (3rd ed.). French Forrest, NSW, Australia: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Scholl, M. (2005). Social studies in action. Young Children. Vol 62 (4) pp. 1-5.
Hi Fei
ReplyDeleteIn this blog, you were using several techniques to guide Child M and Child L in using the digital camera. Their competence to handle the camera and their interest in photography would be enhanced as they learned from a young age about the correct ways to use a camera and to take photos, especially when you were with them to scaffold the various steps. This experience would also help the children to develop their eye-hand fine motor skills and build up their knowledge about the digital camera. They have learned that with such the technology, every action and every object within a reasonable distance can be captured and recorded. They will be able to revisit such special moments later by reviewing the pictures that they have taken. Moreover, when you allowed Child M and L to handle the camera, you were building up their self-confidence and self-worth. They would have felt good that you had entrusted them with such an expensive item.
Yea. M and L both felt that they have been trusted by the teacher as they could have access to the digital camera. We have never done that before to our toddlers. But I was pretty sure that it was a priceless learning experience for them because I met their needs and valued their initiated leaning as meaningful and valuable. Thanks for your input, Em!
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