💬 How to Use Technology for Documentation in the Classroom

Replied to How to Use Technology for Documentation in the Classroom (Zoe Porter-Children and Technology)

Technology has been integrated into the classroom over the past several years. Teachers use it to teach their students new concepts. What about documentation? Teachers also need to keep data about how the students in their class are developing. There are certain milestones administration expects children to reach throughout the school year. Keeping the data about these milestones is an important part of the work of educators. Teachers can do this in different ways. Some teachers may write informal notes about how children are doing when they see a specific behavior. Other teachers may use more formal methods, like keeping detailed observations in a file on their computer. Technology can be used to keep the data teachers collect on their students organized.

I am glad that you found my investigations into the use of technology to support documentation helpful. In case you are interested, I found Making Thinking Visible by Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church and Karin Morrison, a useful read and reference, as well as all the Project Zero resources. One of the things that I was always challenged by was the importance of ‘advancing learning’, not just capturing it.

The focus throughout is the development of understanding, rather than as some sort of by-product. Central to this is the notion of documentation. This can be split into four practices: observing, recording, interpreting and sharing. What is important about documentation is that it, “must serve to advance learning, not merely capture it. As such, documentation includes not only what is collected but also the discussions and reflections on those artifacts.” (Page 38)

Source: An Introduction to Making Thinking Visible – Read Write Respond by Aaron Davis

Another book that I have dived in and out of on the topic has been The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Experience in Transformation, a book that brings together a number of voices on various topics, including Part III, which is on documentation.

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