What else can the printer do?

11th April 2011

“What else can the printer do?”

Today I brought in my personal printer for the children to explore its many uses; as the printer at our centre is in the office (where children aren’t allowed to go).

When I had set up the printer on the table, I was quickly photocopying some of the children’s art work to put in their portfolio; “What else can the printer do?” S asked as she saw me lift up the top to photocopy some art work. “It can photocopy things” I replied “how does it do that?” S asked again, I could see S and a few other children were curious at what I was doing – lifting up the lid – putting a piece of paper in – pressing a button – then out came the picture – as well as the original picture still being there – now we had two!

Taking S’s question “What else can the printer do?” I asked the children “what else do you think we could photo copy?” “ME!” D shouted excitedly, D and the other few children around laughed, another child said “you can’t photo copy yourself!” “Should we see if we could photo copy our hands?” the children looked at me their hands, and looked at me with puzzled looks. After explaining to the children of how we could copy their hands that they could have a copy of their hands on a piece of paper, they were keen to get started.

S put her hands underneath the lid and I put the lid down on top of her hands, when the piece of paper came out, we noticed that one hand was a bit blurry, we talked about why this might of happened and she explained “because I moved my hand”, we did this again and she kept both her hands still – this showed the other children that when it was their turn that they had to keep their hands still to get a clear picture of their hands on a piece of paper.

Te Whariki highlights that " using many materials for different purposes enables children to recognise that different technologies may be used in various places and settings" (MOE, 1996, p. 95)

Once the children had their hands on a piece of paper, they were comparing the picture to other children, some put their hands on top to see that it was actually their real hands on a piece of paper!

After the children had looked at the other children's hands they wanted to photo copy many other things.

I found this learning expereince very valuable for myself and the children as by bringing in a printer for the children to explire they were able to discover a different use of the printer, and to photo copy their hands. This was something that was talked about day and many days after. And now my manager is going to get us a 'room printer' to capture many opportunities to foster children's learning through technology!

References

Mac Naughton, G., & Williams, G. (2004) Techniques for teaching young children: Choices in theory and practice (2^nd ed). New South Wales, Australia: Pearson Education Australia.

Ministry of Education. (1996). Te Whariki: He wariki matauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa/ Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.

MacNaughton & Williams state that “placing equipment and material to promote social interaction between the children can help them to learn the skills such as negotiation and sharing which they need to create and maintain positive peer relationships” (2004, p.21).