Digital camera

Exploring with the digital camera

Today I noticed child E walking around with the digital camera, she had been asked to go around and take five photos. I noticed she was taking photos of her friends and seemed to be very familiar and comfortable with using the camera. Ministry of Education (1996) states that “children develop familiarity with the properties and character of the materials and technology used in the creative ad expressive arts” (p.80). I watched child E being creative with the camera, she was instructing her friends to move into certain positions and asking them to do different things. 

Child E came up to me and asked me if she could take a photo of me. I replied yes and she took a photo of me. I watched her with the camera and she knew exactly which buttons to push to take the photo and how to zoom in and zoom out. This links to the nature of technology strand as child E is developing and understanding how the camera works and why certain buttons do what they do (Ministry of Education, 2007). Child E then went on to take photos of the children in the sandpit and I heard her say I need to take another photo you’re too close. 

I asked child E if she could take some photos of the things she liked at the preschool she seemed very excited by this and soon was off taking photos.

I was amazed at how she went about taking the photos and having confidence with the camera. I thought about how she was using technology and how things have changed over the years as when I was young, I would never have been allowed to use a camera. A Digital camera allows a child to go and take many photos of the things they like and are interested in and also capture their own work.A digital camera gives the flexibility of keeping the photos and downloading them onto a computer or printing them out. If the photos are  not wanted then they can be deleted. .

I knew that a camera was technology but I like how the children are allowed to explore technology by using the cameras and having the freedom to go and take photos without a teacher right beside them.

I also feel that children can capture different things than teachers and its good to see photos from a child’s perspective.

The digital camera is technology as it is a tool that is used to capture pictures it can be part of a creative process or it can be for a purpose (Smorti, 1999).  I feel that the digital camera allows us as teachers to capture all those special moments of a child's learning and be creative with it. It makes the documentation process easier and all the photos are in on place and can be looked at in years to come.
I thought about how important my digital camera was to me personally and how I use it frequently. Technology is  changing all the time with digital cameras as they get smaller and have more mega pixels, different shapes, colours and many more different features.
I see children as being very competent at using digital cameras, they are actively learning about the world around them through technology  ( Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett & Farmer, 2007). 

Reference List

Arthur, L., Beecher, B., Death, E., Dockett, S., & Farmer, S. (2008). Programming and planning in early childhood settings (4th ed.).  Victoria, Australia: Thompson.

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te whāriki, he whāriki mātauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media

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

  

Ministry of Education (2007) Technology. Retrieved from: http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-documents/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum/Learning-areas/Technology.

Here are some of the photos that Child E took with the digital camera. 

Ollie the pig

Jamima the goat

The bouncy balls at preschool


Reference List

 

Moon hopper

The playhouse