Using digital images with young children: challenges of integration

In what ways can information and communications technologies (ICT) be integrated into classroom practice to create a ‘community of learners’? This paper describes an action research project, over a six‐month period, in which a class of seven‐year‐old and eight‐year‐old children in a metropolitan South Australian school created digital images to record perceptions of their school. It examines how the children and their teacher acquired and developed their ICT skills and describes how the teacher, who was not an expert in digital photography and associated software applications, used a network of support staff and colleagues in integrating use of digital images to change ways in which children learn. The paper also discusses challenges of integration confronting the teacher such as time constraints, coping with ICT malfunction, acquiring appropriate support and compilation of a multimedia report of the project.