I was provoked to reflect on this topic after a seminar I attended about the publication of documentation that is created at the RE municipal pre-schools. I am not going to write here in detail about the published books, (or the amount of Euro’s that I spent purchasing examples of published documentation of children’s learning experiences and teachers reflections!), but rather about the thoughts the presentation provoked as related to online documentation in ECE in NZ through blogging…..
The public publishing of documentation around group learning experiences seems to be a very important part of the process of creating pedagogical documentation in the Municipal preschools at Reggio Emilia. Publishing enables the documentation to be shared, to promote further learning experiences for all protagonists and through feedback from the reader different interpretations can be brought to the experience. I wondered about the public sharing of children’s experiences in ECE in NZ through blogging, and what the difference is between sharing on an ECE centre blog, and through a written publication such as those produced in RE? Are these different modes of documentation for very different purposes, or perhaps we are missing an opportunity to use blogs as a form of deep pedagogical documentation?
I know that a very few ECE centres have begun to professionally publish books of learning projects or features of their centre, but for me in my role, the most public kind of documentation that I know of is an open blog. I feel strongly that the public sharing of what and how we are teaching in ECE is important, as it can create fertile ground for sharing, and engaging in dialogue about teaching and learning. It made me think how rarely I leave comments on these open blogs, and when I do it is always some kind of fluffy positive. Often I don’t ask questions even though I am curious about the posting. Are we missing the opportunity for the open blogs to be used as pedagogical documentation, and as a professional learning tool?
Comparing the process of publishing a progettzione (often translated as a ‘project of group learning’) and a centre blog posting:
*Often all that is published on a blog is the final product of a teaching and learning experience, with minimal public sharing of the process. This is in direct contrast to a project book, which is not a chronicle of events, but is a comprehensive record of key points in the process of a progettzione - the times when the project seemed to ‘stick’ and/or ‘jump ahead’ are highlighted, as well as where the project ended up.
*When a progettzione book is published, it always involves a collaboration with many protagonists: children, teachers, pedagogista’s (senior teachers), artelieristers (specialised art teachers), parents and family, editors and graphic designers all feeding into the final publication, rather than on a blog where often it is the teachers deciding on the form and content of a posting. I know there are exceptions to this where children are creating content and publishing slideshows and animations on their ECE centre blog but this is not yet the norm. I welcome comments from teachers and children who dispute this.
*By only publishing as teachers, with our own teachers perspective, we are missing out on including the subjectivities of the parents, other teachers, the children and community. This limits the value of the blog as a professional learning tool – one that we can use to re-visit and re-interpret to continue to take a deeper look at the meaning in children’s work.
*I hear teachers describe their centre blogs as a way of celebrating and giving value to a child’s or a group learning experience. Often postings include a multi-media component or a PDF of a learning story. In RE, the progettzione books as well as the other forms of documentation are seen as places where confrontation can occur. They are given high value and considered fertile ground to enable consultation and comprehension to occur with people who were not present during a progettzione. The documentation enables not just the product to be celebrated but is always available to ensure that we can continue make shared meaning of the children and teachers work.
I think that especially now that we seem to have launched into the public sharing of children’s and teachers experiences through open blogs and books, we need to be very careful about what it is we are publishing, how the content is derived, the purpose, and what is the most appropriate means of sharing examples of learning and teaching. I know that we tend to rush headlong into embracing new ways of working in ECE in NZ and perhaps we just got on with giving blogging a go in the best kiwi tradition? Have we really researched the impact of publishing in this way, and the most effective use of a blog?
Certainly by only publishing the product, are we sending children the message that we value the product over the process? Is the process documented somewhere else? Do we include in postings an over view of the process, and let readers know where they can access this?
It is the right of children to learn, and to celebrate their learning. I question whether a blog posting of a finished product with minimal input from others and little or no surfacing of how the experience got to this point is in the best interests of teaching and learning. It is important to continue to revisit and critique the content of all of the documentation, and especially that of blogs, which are in the public forum and a new tool in ECE.
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