Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/photography-as-a-tool-for-documenting-learning/5025550/
*Photos can be found in the pdf version of this article.
Documentation as Visible Listening
Digital cameras are perhaps some of the most valuable tools in a preschool classroom. They can, of course, be used with very young children as a natural introduction to technology. However, cameras are perhaps most powerful as a tool for documentation. Cameras, if only for a moment, provide us a lens into the mind of the child and allow us to make their learning visible to others. The camera allows us to see a child’s actions more clearly and engage in more meaningful dialogue. No educators understand this better than the educators in Reggio Emilia, Italy.
In Reggio Emilia, photography has become an integral part of the curriculum. In some ways, their approach to working with young children could not exist without it. It is the way in which they make learning visible, not only to colleagues, parents and the community, but also with children, that makes this approach one of the most inspiring in the world. Photography and the documentation that results from it are essential to the pedagogical research done by teachers alongside children and drives their teaching-learning relationship (Rinaldi, 2005).
As Carlina Rinaldi, president of ...