*This is an updated version of a post originally published in May 2018* If you are a teacher in the Northern Hemisphere, the new academic year is heating up. The paper work may be piling up too… A LOT! Education apps can help with that. Apps can be used to digitally document and collate children’s learning. These records can then be easily shared with other students, educators and parents – helping to grow a community that fosters learning. However, at their worst, apps can also encourage a culture of surveillance and control of children’s lives – it depends on how they are being used! In this post, I talk about why documenting and reflecting on children’s learning is important, including how apps can be used to support this process in a positive way. I review five apps: Seesaw, Class Dojo, Google Classroom, Storypark and Artsonia to discuss how these can…
Visiting Reggio Australia’s pedagogical documentation centre
This post features a summary and reflection on the theory, principles and practices of the Reggio Emilia process of pedagogical documentation. The possibilities and challenges of what this reflective methodology holds for children’s gallery education are also discussed in relation to my doctoral research. “There is a constant relational reciprocity between those who educate and those who are educated, between those who teach and those who learn. There is participation, passion, compassion and emotion. There is aesthetics. There is change.” Carlina Rinaldi Last week I was fortunate enough to spend an afternoon visiting the Reggio Emilia Australia Information Exchange’s documentation centre at the University of Melbourne. I was interested in taking some time to think and reflect on how other early year’s educators are working with the process of pedagogical documentation within their own education settings. This is particularly pertinent to me after spending the past few months working with the early year’s…
Experimenting and learning through images
In this post I talk about my photographic art practice and how this has allowed me to produce new relationships between myself, other people and the world. I then discuss the role of visual images in artistic experimentation and how this interconnects with the use of visual imagery in pedagogical documentation or inquiry-led learning practices in early childhood education. Experimention and learning through images has been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember. Since I was first taught photography at school (thank you Georgina Campbell) I have experimented with a myriad of photographic processes including medium format cameras, scanners and digital photography. My photos have focused on the relationship between landscape and the subject matter’s psychological world. Creating and thinking through images has allowed me to experience things and learn in a way that could not be done with words. Learning new artistic skills, techniques and concepts…