We are living in the era of technology. So how can children be kept away from it? Therefore, instead of stopping them from using it, it is better to manage their use. Furthermore, with proper guidance and supervision, we can make this technology useful. Thus, they will learn more from it.
In preschools, teachers can use technology to give lessons to children. Furthermore, they can learn about the basics of a computer at an early age. But more importantly, with the lockdown caused by the pandemic, technological education has become a part of our lives.
Educational institutes have now started online education. So it is better that you also get yourself familiar with education websites. Visit nofusstutors.com they can provide you with worksheets for kindergarten children. Thus, with their hrlp, you can involve your child in studies from an early age.
Apart from worksheets, you will also get phonics, sight words and fun maths. All of these are available for kindergarten children. Therefore, they will be according to their mental approach.
Here are some of the strategies that you can follow to effectively use technology for the education of your children.
Teaching strategies
1. Model careful use of technology
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Children will do what they observe. Therefore, if you want them to use technology safely, you need to make them learn so. Besides hurting themselves, kids often damage the equipment. Firstly, because they are not aware of the cost and importance of things. Secondly, because they don’t care.
Thus, you will have to help them learn things in ways that will not damage the equipment while they remain safe.
For instance, a child wants to open a program on the computer but doesn’t know-how. So if he is unsure about clicks and related things, he is likely to cause program failure. Therefore, as a teacher and parent, it is your responsibility to guide them about these things.
Furthermore, you have to first train them about basics. For example, if you need to open a certain file, you need to double click on it. If you are solving your worksheet, you need to click on the right option only. In addition to this, you should also ensure that the children ask you for help when they could not do the thing they want to.
2. Choose children-friendly hardware
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Yes, there is hardware that is specially designed for children. Stopping kids from using technology is almost impossible because if anything is present in your home or classroom, children will come in contact with it. If not you, they will try to use it all by themselves.
Therefore, they are likely to cause unrepairable damage to the instrument. Furthermore, parents have often experienced all this by themselves. Their expensive phones get damaged and destroyed once their children start putting their hands on them.
Therefore, the best choice for you is to provide them with their specified products. Furthermore, the hardware designed for children has special features too. These equipment are built according to the physical and perceptual capabilities of young kids.
In addition to this, you can also encourage children to help their fellows. Class fellows are more likely to ask for help from their peers rather than asking the teacher. Thus, they can learn more with each other’s help.
3. Select appropriate applications and programs
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You cannot expose children to all the information available in this world. Kids have their mental level and they need to be dealt with accordingly. Therefore, the instruments designed for children should consist of applications and programs for them.
Besides you can teach them first. For example, you have a new worksheet for 1st grade students. They don’t know how to use that worksheet program. Therefore, you will have to make small groups and teach each one of them.
Because of the small group, every student is likely to learn easily as he will be focused. Moreover, you can observe them for a day or two and see how well they understand things. Finally, when they have grasped the situation, you can make the program available for work time.
4. Facilitate the social exchange
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Although you have to teach the technological use to the children but they cannot remain un-socialized. Furthermore, it is well understood that when every child will have his gadget or device with him, he is less likely to talk to others.
Therefore, to facilitate social exchange between children, you have to manage the location of technology in the classroom. Thus, to do so, the desks should be arranged in a manner that lets them talk to each other. Moreover, they should also be able to see what others are doing.
For example, a student is doing some drawing and someone observes and find it interesting. He will go to his computer himself and will ask the other student about it. Thus, they are likely to interact with each other and help each other. Consequently, they will socialize and will also help each other in learning about new things.
5. Encourage verbalization of thinking while solving problems
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Most of the children remain quiet if they did something wrong with the instrument. For example, they are trying to open the application but the system got hanged. The children might have clicked the wrong button or have opened too many applications at a time. Thus, they are not aware of the thing that they did wrong.
Consequently, when they do not verbalize it, they are likely to leave the system in troubled condition. Therefore, you have to teach them to talk about problems.
For example, when the system got hanged, the student asks you for help. Now you have to tell him that whenever such a thing happens, wait for a while. If the problem does not seem to resolve, reboot the program. The best way is to shut down the program. If the problem is still there, shut down the system.
Conclusion
The use of technology is quite beneficial for children if they start to learn from a young age. But we cannot rush things. Therefore, we need to proceed slowly and gradually with caution. Thus, by following the right methods, we can make the best use of technology.
