Budding Photographer

Last week I was taking some photos of the children's playdough creations, when one of the two year old boys asked to see the photo that I had taken. I showed him his photo and some of the photos of the other children as well, which he found very interesting and for some reason pretty hilarious. He wanted to hold the camera, so I asked if he would like to take some photos. He very enthusiastically nodded his head, so I showed him how to push the big button on top to take a photo. He held it up and pushed the button several times, but the photos did not show up on the screen. Unfortunately this camera needs the button to be held down, so I tried to show him this action, but he could not seem to make it work. This was a good way for him to practice problem solving with technology, because assording to Smorti (1999) "Knowledge, skills and resources are combined to find solutions; and there may be more than one solution to the problem" (p. 6). In the end I helped him to hold down the button so that the photos would work, but I think partly due to my interference he soon lost interest. I found it quite interesting that this child would become so interested in what was on the camera, because the cameras are used all day long and photos are a constant occurrence, which are put on the wall at the end of each day for parents to see. This opened my eyes to the fact that we are taking photos of the children every day, but they don't really get the opportunity to see what is on the camera or what it does. Under goal 3 of the exploration strand in Te Whāriki it states that "Children develop the ability to represent their discoveries, using creative and expressive media and the technology associated with them" (Ministry of Education, 1996, p. 88). I feel that the staff do this when creating learning stories, taking photos and displaying the children's artwork, but the opportunity isn't really given for children to do this themselves. However this is something that I aim to rectify, by encouraging children to take some photos each day and asking them for ideas of how and where to display them in the centre. This will at least provide an opportunity for the children to get more involved with technology and be able to represent their own discoveries using technology as suggested in Te Whāriki. It will also help to get children involved with planning, because according to Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett and Farmer (2008) "When their interests are incorporated into the curriculum children are more likely to engage in a wide range of experiences" (p. 313). This is why I felt that it was so important to help this boy extend on the interest he was displaying in the camera at the time. People, places and things definitely have a big impact on how things are done, but in this case people was the biggest factor for me. It is so important that we listen to children and take their cues (MacNaughton & Williams, 2004). Especially when planning for their learning with technology.