In the exploratory mode the images or products of the assignment are linked to the process itself. The most successful images have caused us to look more closely at our world. Like Charles Darwin's sketchbooks or the electronic images transmitted back to us from the Voyager space probe, the images we make are a part of our voyages of discovery. The recording mode is often closely related to the exploratory mode. It can be distinguished, however, by intention.
Recording is about creating a document.
It is about selecting a moment in time and preserving that moment. One of the most powerful classroom uses of the recording mode of visual learning is to document student achievement. Whether we use photographs made at the beginning and the end of a school year to record change, or whether we meticulously document projects and performances for student portfolios, recording should be an essential part of a visual classroom. Evaluating images made in the recording mode involves questions of fidelity and accuracy. Have students imagine that what they are photographing may be the last and only photograph ever made of that subject.