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According
to Te Whaariki, it is stated that “children gain experience in using communication
technologies such as crayons, paintbrushes, pencils…” (Ministry of Education,
1996, p.97). To align with this, in my centre, a variety of communication
technological materials are provided, including crayons, paints, brushes, palette
and many more. Besides, the teachers always set up different art activities for
children to explore and express their thinking and creativity, including marble
painting, sponge painting and so on. One of the recent popular art activities
is screen painting.
Last
Thursday, teacher P. set up the screen painting table, and several children were
attracted to play over there. Most of them seemed very confident and competent
at that table as they were quite familiar with that art technique. However,
some still needed help either from the teacher or their peers. Most children could
remember and follow the steps. They cut the paper into their favourite shapes, placed
the shape on another piece of paper, covered them with the screen printer, poured
the paint on top of the screen, and then moved the roller to print. After children
finished their work, they all knew and put their paintings on the rack to dry. Beautiful paintings! ~~
Referring to Smorti (1999), technology is “a creative
and purposeful activity aimed at meeting needs and opportunities through the
development of products, systems or environments” (p.5). This hands-on art
experience is a technological activity provided by the teacher to extend
children’s learning based on their interests in painting. It is a creative
process as the final work all turned different. Children use their prior
knowledge, provided materials and skills to express their ideas and make their desired
paintings. This experience could also help children develop “familiarity with
the properties and character of the materials and technology used in the
creative and expressive arts” (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.80). In addition,
it stimulated children to think technologically about the
space in which they were learning and living (Talay-Ongan & Ap, 2005)
Smorti
(1999) also said that technology is about “solving problems” (p.5). This
activity allowed an opportunity for children to recognize problems and find
solutions. For example, children had to plan what shapes to cut and to decide what
tools to use and how to cut certain shapes and etc. Obviously, for children who
rarely use this technological tool, at first they had to find out how this
screen printer works. Children used their physical skills, communication skills,
their imagination and the resources to seek for solutions. That met the NZ
Curriculum’s goal that “students develop knowledge particular to technological enterprises
and environments and understandings of how and why things work” (Ministry of Education,
2007, p.32). Understanding of technology gives children
the strength and skills to generate and explore ideas in creative ways
(Ministry of Education, 1996). Moreover,
by
solving the problem, children not only took a big step extending their learning towards new knowledge and skills and understandings, but also gained confidence and self-esteem (Lancaster, 2003).
Furthermore,
studies also showed that as our hands touch and play upon surfaces of outer
reality, we internalize and inwardly fabricate a
personalized tapestry in our mind (Auer, 2001). In other words, engaging in this
hands-on experience with different technical tools and materials enhanced
children’s brain/intellectual development.
NZ
Curriculum declared that “The aim is for students to develop a broad
technological literacy that will equip them to participate in society as informed
citizens and give them access to technology related careers” (Ministry
of Education, 2007, p.32). Therefore, I think teachers
should promote the effective use of technology.
References
Auer,
A. (2001). Hand Movements Sculpt
Intelligence. New Hampshire, America: Research Institute for Waldorf
Education.
Google. (n.d.). Image. Retrieved from: https://www.google.co.nz/search?num=10&hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1280&bih=622&q=screen+printing&oq=screen+printing&gs_l=img.3..0l10.798.3429.0.3572.15.10.0.2.2.0.320.1184.2-4j1.5.0...0.0...1ac.lrx2-UEVk-k
Lancaster,
Y.P. (2003). Listening to young children.
Glasgow, Britain: Open University Press.
Ministry
of Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He
whāriki mātauranga mo ngā mokopuna ö Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum.
Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.
Ministry
of Education. (2007). The New
Zealand curriculum: For English-Medium teaching and learning in years 1-13.
Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.
Smorti,
S. (1999). Technology in early childhood. Early Education, No. 19 Autumn
1999.
Talay-Ongan,
A., & Ap, E. A. (Eds.). (2005). Child
development and teaching young children. Southbank, Victoria,
Australia: Thompson Social Science Press.
Kate, this is a very interesting and insightful Blog. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and ideas on screen painting. It was good to see you thinking and reflecting about how technology can be used in a more creative way. I liked that you reflected on the process of screen painting. It seems like the children are learning many different things while going through this process, thanks for sharing some of these with us. This activity certainly did allow children many opportunities to gain new knowledge as well as solve their own problems.
ReplyDeleteIt is very true that some children are more confident than others to use different equipment. Perhaps you could have talked more about the ways which you helped the children who were new to the process of screen painting. It would have been good to hear about some of the techniques you used to do this.
Thanks again for sharing this blog. I am looking forward to seeing what you come up with next.
Tino pai Kate,
ReplyDeleteI liked hearing that you provide all sorts of different media for the children to explore their creativity with. I found it very interesting to read about screen painting used as technology. Not only were the children using a piece of technology, but they were also using it in order to create pieces of art and thus using technological processes. It is true that they were solving problems when figuring out how to cut out shapes, and where to put the shapes. I imagine choosing colours would be another decision to make.
Technology is indeed a very creative topic and the children were expressing themselves creatively through this process. I admit that I find it difficult at times to separate the two concepts, as they are closely intertwined. Maybe we do not really need to separate them. After all that is technology includes creative processes, for example “ how can we make something that will ...?” Technology such as screen painting is used to make art and technology itself is about solving problems using creativity and imagination. Maybe you could also reflect on this more for your final reflection. How does technology differ to creativity?
Hello Kate
ReplyDeleteYou have written an interesting blog on yet another non digital technology.
I agree that screen painting is very creative and it has a creative process as well, which requires lots of thinking and is very much hands on.
As you mentioned, there is a process involved in screen painting and I think that when children go through this process, they become more confident and competent at it.
However, I do agree with Nicola that you could have talked more about how you supported the children who were new to the process- such as the teaching techniques you used.
Thanks.
What an interesting learning experience! I’m sure children have enjoyed the screen painting. It’s nice that you have reflected on such a creative technological learning experience.
ReplyDeleteI loved the fact that children were encouraged to decide what shapes they were going to cut out and what tools they wanted to use. It’s a great way of nurturing children’s ability of problem-solving. I think I am going to introduce screen painting to children in my centre, I believe children in our centre will love it too.
Since children in your centre are interested in art activity that involved sensory, you could carry on setting up more activities like this to extend on their interest. Finger painting or gloop painting would be some nice choice! I have found a great clip about paint to the rhythm of the music with different textures, you might like to have a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Mx-95TIUUA