The camera is not a methodology: towards a framework for understanding young children's use of video cameras

Participatory research methods argue that young children should be enabled to contribute their perspectives on research seeking to understand their worldviews. Visual research methods, including the use of still and video cameras with young children have been viewed as particularly suited to this aim because cameras have been considered easy and fun to use for young children. However, how children learn to use cameras introduced into early childhood classrooms for research purposes is not well understood. In terms of visual research methodologies, this is a problem because participant use of cameras is associated with understanding the nature of visual data generated during the recording process itself. In this paper, we consider observational data of young children playing with video cameras introduced into their classrooms for research purposes. Drawing on the concepts of culturally mediated tool use and epistemic and ludic play, we theorise these observations to generate a new framework for understanding how children learn to use cameras through play-based activity. This framework suggests that research with children using still or video cameras may need to accommodate this learning within research designs and procedures in order to take full advantage of this medium. Pedagogical implications for using the framework to support young children's technological play are also considered.16 page(s

{phi} meson production in Au + Au and p + p collisions at {radical}s{sub NN}=200 GeV

We report the STAR measurement of {psi} meson production in Au + Au and p + p collisions at {radical}s{sub NN} = 200 GeV. Using the event mixing technique, the {psi} spectra and yields are obtained at midrapidity for five centrality bins in Au+Au collisions and for non-singly-diffractive p+p collisions. It is found that the {psi} transverse momentum distributions from Au+Au collisions are better fitted with a single-exponential while the p+p spectrum is better described by a double-exponential distribution. The measured nuclear modification factors indicate that {psi} production in central Au+Au collisions is suppressed relative to peripheral collisions when scaled by the number of binary collisions (<N{sub bin}>). The systematics of <p{sub T}> versus centrality and the constant {psi}/K{sup -} ratio versus beam species, centrality, and collision energy rule out kaon coalescence as the dominant mechanism for {psi} production