A SNAIL THAT HID AWAY IN IT’S SHELLL.( A digital entry)

 USE OF ICT CAMERA SUPPORTING PLAYFULNESS AND EXPERIMENTATION IN YOUNG   CHILDREN.

                                        A SNAIL THAT HID AWAY IN IT’S SHELLL.

 Teachers usually discuss whether ICT kills creativity. Perhaps it is the teacher’s personal philosophy, teaching practices and the teacher’s values that have the real effect on how ICT and creativity is viewed and used within our centre. I explained to them and According to Smorti (1999), technology is about helping people and solving problems.

 Recently a live snail was capturing J’s attention for couple of days. He showed it to me and I gave him the camera where he could capture his own excitement. He experimented with enlargements by changing the wheel on the camera. Close up photographs inspired his question “Do snails hide like a turtle?”

  J used another function to return to a previous photo to show me. Within minutes the photos were downloading onto the computer screen. “How did you get these (photos) onto your computer J asked me?” The next day J photographed the worms. He practiced his close up photography. He demonstrated to R how to get a close up. While doing this he discovered how to get multiple views on the screen, – that was a surprise! And J had added difficulty to his learning. “Wow” he said in amazement. Lots of conversation was going on between J and his friends. “How the snail moves” “why is it hiding in his shell”? The children were getting very creative by expressing all sorts of ideas like “I am going to draw the snail aunty” said T. Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 1996), characterises the cognitive elements of ‘knowledge’ as children developing more complex and useful working theories about themselves and about the people, places, and things in their lives. It talks too, of the intellectual processes involved in this, as children develop the necessary enquiring patterns of thought or habits of mind that will enable them to effectively use information about the world to enhance their lives.

I also bought the  snail indoors and left it on a leaf  of a plant and children used magnifying glass to see how it moved and if it was sleeping or not. I asked a lot of question for example “why do you think the snail is sleeping?” T asked me “if the snail is like a turtle hiding in his home?” Robertson (2000) states that teacher learns from children by observing them, following their interest to supply resources and supporting them by making suggestions and extending their thinking by asking question through creative process.

                                 Using ICT to highlight and give value to children’s creativity

 Using camera and it’s button to ‘click and push’ sometimes  the use of this  technology is going to kill creativity, because it is about the software and its sounds and ‘clicks and whistles’ effects, not the children’s imagination as thought by some teachers (Hatherly, Ham &  Evans, 2010). We use open-ended ICT tools e.g. digital camera and software such as smart board, computers in our centre to capture children’s learning.

I believe Digital photography also provides real opportunities for experimentation for children (Claudia & Jerkins, 1999). Our preschool has increased use of digital technology within the service led to children’s confidence to experiment in order to gain the results they wanted, as is illustrated in the story of J’s “use of the camera”. Furthermore, teachers observed that as the more experienced and skilled children modelled during experimentation, the newcomers quickly learnt to use the tools in a similar way.  There were many examples of using ICT – particularly data projectors and LCD screens – so that children could share the ‘products’ of their creative work, digital stories, photographs, animations, and get feedback from each other and teachers too (Hatherly, Ham &  Evans, 2010). In my centre the use of ICT is to highlight children’s creative work and the effect of ‘spreading the word’ about that was possible and led to other children’s motivation to create and present work.

Reference List

Claudia & Jenkins, (1999). A practical guide to early childhood curriculum (sixth ed). Upper saddle river, New Jersey

Hatherly, A.,Dr Vince, H., & L.,(2009). An overview of the impact of the Early Childhood Education Information and Communication Technologies Professional Learning (ECE ICT PL) programme, 2006–2009.

    Ministry of Education, (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki matauranga mō ngā mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media

Robertson, J. (2000). Drawing: making thinking visible. In W. Schiller (Ed.), Thinking through the arts: Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Press.

Smoti, S. (1999) Technology in Early Childhood. Early Education, 19, 5-10