Technology in Elementary School Education
by
Andrew Gardner
With increased access to digital media tools in schools and no clear expectations
about how to use them, teachers have an opportunity to be
creative. Over
the past 2 years while working at the technology heavy School
at Columbia University, I have experimented with different
tech tools. While
using computers has been useful, I’ve found the most
satisfaction putting digital cameras into the hands of the
students. In this article I will describe the procedure we
took to make a home grid, a project in which using digital
cameras allowed us build classroom community by learning
about each others homes while simultaneously addressing significant
learning objectives.
We
made our home grid during the 5th week of the new school
year. With routines basically established, class 1a began
approaching the meat of our social studies curriculum. At
The School, first grade does a family study, in which we
compare and contrast the cultures represented in our classroom
community through studying different homes, rituals and even
alphabets! In the spirit of doing creative projects, one
afternoon, Genie, my associate, and I were brainstorming
ways to help children understand the concept of home. Though
we knew it would have been fun to visit each child’s home, we knew it was impractical,
so we came up with the idea to help the children create a home
grid in which they could at least see the different elements
of each other’s homes. This
grid allowed us to compare and contrast the physical elements
of every student’s home. Genie and I believed it was
important to begin our study by identifying concrete elements
of home. The tangible
items were easy to compare and contrast, and would provide
a decent entry point into the more conceptual conversations
as the study progressed.
During Monday
morning meeting we asked the question what are some things
in a home. The class created a list of things that are in a
home. From bathrooms
to beds, our list included 24 things that the kids felt were
important. Later
in the afternoon, at our end of the day meeting, I introduced
the children to the classroom’s digital cameras. We
talked about what a camera did, and how to use it. For homework,
I began sending the children home with the digital camera and
a copy of the list of things they thought were important. Their
job was to take care of the camera and document the home.
Slowly, over
the course of 2 weeks, the kids brought home the cameras and
took digital photographs of every item on the list. The
next day they would return the cameras full of images from
their homes. Using photo software on the Macintosh computer
(though any photo organization program could work), we organized
and printed 2X3 prints (alas using a lots of color ink) of
the children’s homes. One
afternoon, after all the photographs were collected and printed,
we worked together to make the home grid. Each
child was given paper copies of their pictures and glued them
down in special order so that we created an enormous grid with
columns of an individual child’s home and rows of the
same element. After
everyone had finished pasting his or her photos we hung up
the enormous grid on our class bulletin board in the hall. Over
time we took many trips to the grid to have conversations,
most of which involved comparing and contrasting each other’s
kitchens, ceilings, siblings and even toys.
So,
you may ask, what do you learn from comparing and contrasting
small photographs of each other’s homes? Well
within our diverse student population, the home grid was an
entry point into seeing each other’s homes democratically.
By talking about how children’s homes were physically
similar and different, it helped develop self-awareness and
awareness of others, important elements of building emotional
intelligence. Also, the home grid provides easy visual subject
for children to use while writing, playing I-spy or even solving
mathematics problems. Also, upon establishing a firm grasp of the physical elements
in a home, we were able to begin more complicated conversations
about non-physical elements of home such as human relationships
and love and even disagreements. These
conversations helped children to begin understanding how elements
of home go beyond the physical existence.
Most of the children were proud to have their photographs on the wall,
and that pride made it more seductive for them to talk about
them. Also, these initial conversations about human homes
in New York City provided a base that helped when we began
talking about animal homes, and homes in other cultures. In retrospect, we could have used the
photographs in many other ways as well; the children could
have made books about their homes, we could have made a guessing
game, or even had the kids give PowerPoint presentations!
This was the
first instance of camera use in our classroom. As the year
progressed, children used the cameras for more projects but
they also began using them informally as a documentation tool,
recording and digitally archiving photographs of important
things, such as a project, a friend or even a book they had
read. The process of documenting things
that they found important, and reflecting later, allowed the
children to actually think about how and why they were learning;
they also become more articulate talking about what they learned. Furthermore, they became producers of visual culture, a role
far different from the role they may take while watching TV,
going to movies, or surfing the Internet.
In these days
of prepackaged curriculum and limited teacher autonomy, the
introduction of digital media tools to our schools is a wonderful
opportunity for teachers to experiment. I
have found that putting the cameras into the hands of children
have not only helped as a tool in making projects, but has
also given them a sense of self-worth and responsibility.#
Andrew Gardner,
an elementary school teacher at The School at Columbia University,
is currently traveling throughout Europe, exploring other
school systems, not unlike his father, Harvard Professor
Howard Gardner.
