On Thursday, myself and the head teacher set
up the Data Projector that the centre only uses when we have parent evenings. We
both felt like it was a waste of a perfectly good piece of technology if it was
just sitting in the storage room, so we decided that we could use it as a
teaching and learning tool with the children. The head teacher is new in the
centre and wants to incorporate a lot more use of this type of technology
within the room as she has come from being a deputy principle at a primary
school that had a very strong focus on ICT.
Since she has had the experience of using ICT
with children, she downloaded a couple of educational song videos onto the
computer prior to us using it with the children. Together we went through the
list of songs making sure that the songs we were going to use were age
appropriate and fitted in with our classroom project which is focusing on the children’s
interest of “Living Creatures.” This process that we went through fits in with what
Isenberg and
Jalongo (2009) suggest when they say that you should “choose songs that
encourage active involvement; relate to children’s interests; engage the whole
child; have repetitive, easy-to-learn phrases; and emphasize rhyme, rhythm, and
alliteration” (p.186).
While we were setting everything up, we had a
lot of children that were very curious about what all this equipment was. Every
step of the way they were watching us plug everything in, setting up the
speakers and making sure that the data projector was at the right height to
project onto the white screen. The children quickly discovered that if they stood
in front of the light they would not be able to see anything on the screen
because their body was creating a shadow. So before we even used this piece of
technology with them, they were already forming their own ideas and building knowledge
about this piece of equipment.
When we called the children to come for Hui Time
(mat-time), there was a lot of chatter between them about what was set up. We
asked them many open-ended questions about what they saw and noticed that was
different, how they thought it might work, what it is used for and why we would
use it. By using this type of questioning, we were not waiting for the correct
answer as we just curious to know what they were thinking and we wanted them to
express what they might have already known (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009).
A lot of children were a bit confused as to
how the big white screen was going to work as it did not have any wires coming
out of it; so after the discussion about the date projector that we had with
the children was over, we turned it on to show them how it worked. We felt that
as teachers it was important for the students
to develop knowledge and gain an understanding of how and why things work
(Ministry of Education, 2007, p. 32). We did some singing and dancing and the
children who figured out that their body made a shadow on the screen if the
blocked out the light while we were testing it out let their friends know what
they had discovered. This experience links to the New Zealand Curriculum when
it suggests that "graphics and other forms of visual representation offer
important tools for exploration and communication" (Ministry of Education,
2007, p. 32).
At the end of the day, we used the data projector
as a way of showing the parents what their child got up to as we downloaded all
the photographs onto a slide show and just let it play until all of the
children got picked up. The children were very excited to show their parents
what they got up to during the day and I felt it was nice for the parents to
see what their child got up to rather than just listening and trying to picture
what they did.
Hey Jac,
ReplyDeleteThats sounds so cool! I think a data projector is a great piece of equipment to have in a centre.
Its great how the children stood infront of the light and discovered that their shadow was on the wall instead of the image.
As The New Zealand Curriculum suggests that "graphics and other forms of visual representation offer important tools for exploration and communication" (Ministry of Education, 2007, p. 32), you could extend the childrnes knowledge of projecting images by using an overhead projector with the children. By using that they will experience seeing something they have created or drawn projected for others to see.
Very nice how you involved the parents into this experience by making the images available for them to view.
:)
I really like that you have used a piece of equipment for something outside of its normal use. It shows real innovation to think outside the box and use it to interact with the children.
ReplyDeleteThe data projector is a great way to allow lots of children to view movies, photos and watch you or their friend’s exploration something new. I laptop or a computer can only accommodate so many children at once, but this way they can interact with each other and bring other children into the mix that might have been outside and not seen what has been set up.
I love how you used it like a really big photo frame at the end of the day.
Data projectors are also lots of fun when playing with just your hands of bodies. You can use them to create shadow games to and introducing light and dark to children.
The New Zealand Curriculum suggests that through visual arts children “develop conceptual thinking within a range of practices” (Ministry of Education, 2007) Looking at photos or videos on a big screen is a visual art and some children learn better and more efficiently through visually looking and listening rather than doing.