Westminster Preschool and AV Collaborate for Week of the Young Child

Friday, March 23, 2012

An annual tradition continued Monday, March 19, in AV Services, spawning a new collaborative project as well. The Westminster College Preschool class, led by teachers Debbie Roud and Diana Reed toured the inner workings of the Audio Visual Department for the seond straight year.

Children were familiarized with technologies and equipment used and circulated through the department which tied to a new collaborative project, Art and Technology, in honor of the National Association for the Education of Young Children's (NAEYC) "Week of the Young Child."

AV Services Director, Gary Swanson, Assistant Director Katie Bittner, and Assistant Operations Director Nicole Jodikinos welcomed 18 children to the department, explaining Audio Visual's name and how it relates to things that we see and hear. The children also toured the media library, saw the department's poster printing system in operation, helped run some items through the laminator, and got to interact with a document camera and projection system, learning how these devices can enlarge a piece of artwork printed on regular paper so that a much larger group of people can see and interact with it.

"The children have created artwork on Kid Pix, a drawing program specifically for their age group,"  said Kelly Matune, AV Services PR and Operations Manager. "Each masterpiece will be displayed on a large projection screen using a document camera, and then each child will be interviewed standing in front of their art while they elaborate on their piece. Our staff will be creating a video of all of these interviews for later online viewing and public display.

When asked about how it all connects, Matune continued, "Taking what they know and transitioning into what they might be unfamiliar with resonates best with kids, it seems, so we wanted to introduce them to these technologies at the very beginning of the week, allow them to use them during the week, and then showcase all that they have learned as a result."

Details on when and where the project will be displayed will be forthcoming.

"Technology is such a valuable tool in education when used purposefully," added Swanson. "This collaborative project further demonstrates this."