Digital media & early years:Karen Pringle and Hindpool Nursery School, Barrow

School/Setting

Hindpool Nursery School, Barrow-in-Furness

Artist

Karen Pringle

Aims

The project followed an enquiry project involving two nurseries, where the focus had been on exploring their community by making audio recordings and creating animated films with the sounds they had collected.

The main aim of the bursary was to build staff confidence and skills in IT and the creative use of digital media with very young children.

Process

The process began with INSET sessions where teachers and nursery staff could “play” with various new software packages and explore the facilities they already had and some of the software that is freely available on most platforms. The staff animated items in the nursery, recorded and edited soundtracks, and used some of the previous project material to create audio visual presentations.

After the introduction sessions staff took time to think and reflect on how they would like to work and what they would like to explore further, deciding that they would like to look at using animation as a way of creating a story-building tool and improving storytelling skills. They were also interested in exploring more ways to use their IT resources (stills, video, animation and sound recording) to support initiatives like ‘Every Child a Talker’ and to make more creative use of them in their own recording and evaluation processes. The staff then set out to make two films with each nursery class; staff led the activities with support from Karen where needed.

Impact

From the artist’s perspective, a creative atmosphere was generated in the nursery; each time she returned the staff had thought about new things they would like to try. Karen commented, “It was great to see genuine enthusiasm from all the staff and to see some of the staff who considered themselves ‘no good’ at computers creating results that they were inspired or surprised by”.

Next steps

Staff have begun to think about other ways they could use digital media in their own roles, e.g. using time-lapse and stop motion to talk about the seasons or to create visual diaries of a typical nursery day to help with evaluation of activities and to use alongside traditional still images for sharing learning stories with parents/ carers etc.

Find out more

Email Karen Pringle