“Para was a good student and did well in all the other subjects but as far as math was concerned, her brain seemed to shut itself off,” says Jyoti KC, an elementary mathematics teacher. “She used to make such silly addition and subtraction errors but now she doesn’t make a single mistake besides being really quick at calculations,” she adds with a slightly surprised look on her face.[break]
The transformation from a kid with an aversion to math to a whiz who can calculate in her head didn’t happen overnight. Or maybe it did. Her mother introduced her to “Math Workout” an app on her Samsung Galaxy tablet that had many levels of math lessons in a game format. Para was hooked to it; sometimes spending hours curled up with the device.
Cilla Khatry
With the advent of tablets and smartphones, children are using new technology earlier than ever before. The explosive growth of social media, smartphones and digital devices is transforming the kids’ lives; in school and at home.
There’s a lot of hope for how technology can help children learn easily. Children can match numbers, play with diagrams, create artworks, play games based on their favorite story and even develop their own, new stories with the help of these highly evolved technologies. Many apps offer immediate interactive responses, which is really exciting for both education and play. So the potential of mobile technologies is evident.
Though these gadgets and the apps are quite helpful in teaching basic tasks, from reading to memory enhancing techniques, there’s also the crucial question of how much is too much for the kids. Technology needs to be used constructively, more so where the kids are concerned.
Sagar Thapaliya, 10, a grade four student, is always hooked to his iPad. He takes it to school, uses it during breaks between homework sessions and plays games on it during dinner. His parents, who gifted him the high end device on his birthday, now worry if it’s hampering his social skills.
“He seems to be lost in his own world and responds in monosyllables when spoken to,” says his mother, Niti Thapaliya adding that Sagar’s father had installed language apps and word games before gifting it to him. Sagar vocabulary improved considerably in the first few weeks but then he started downloading car race and wrestling games and now seems to be hooked to those and doesn’t play mind games like puzzles and scrabble anymore.
“I don’t know how to get him off the device and even during the times he uses it, I want him to spend some time on useful apps that can teach him things rather than mindless games,” says the worried mother.
This “digital inundation” is of constant concern to parents, it seems, who are lost on how to strike a balance between learning and fun and in general, not let these gadgets rule their kids’ lives.
Moreover, many also worry that these devices will take over from learning the basics the “right” way since our education system is still largely based on rote learning. But, there’re lots of ways to learn with the help of the ever evolving technology. And in fact, the basics are best learnt in different ways.
A new android powered tablet aimed at four-year-olds and under is in the final stages of production. There’re hundreds of Apple and Android apps designed to develop young children’s literacy and numeracy.
“Sometimes kids aren’t able to grasp things the normal way. It’s too boring for them. That’s when educational apps come into play. The interactive way of learning can stir things up and get them interested in even mundane subjects,” says Rita Lama, an English teacher at an elementary school who has had huge success with teaching her own kids difficult words with the help of interactive games.
“My five year old can spell words kids double her age have difficulty with,” says Rita with a beaming smile.
The best of both the old methods and the modern world can be applied with the help of technology. For instance, it’s easier to teach kids spellings and enhance their vocabulary by involving a combination of writing, board games and reading interactive stories on a tablet rather than getting them to mug up words from books and dictionaries.
“Many people prefer to educate their children the old-fashioned way saying dependence on technology can become a severe addiction, but the truth is that technology provides learning opportunities that traditional methods simply don’t,” adds Rita.
For Udit Chaudhary, 7, a grade one student, who almost always got mixed up with big numbers and spellings, math and word games have proved to be immensely helpful. He doesn’t feel like he’s studying when he’s working on sums and words on the iPad and the game format makes learning fun and he picks up really well.
“Earlier, he used to count using his fingers and still get confused but now he can count in his head,” says his guardian who downloads different apps every single day in an effort to make Udit smarter. And it seems to be working wonders. Udit now can spell big words and math homework is a breeze. He also navigates through the iPads’ interface and various apps without any hesitance.
Since technology is a significant feature of contemporary life, feeling competent and confident with it is slowly becoming a new basic skill that children now also need to learn. Children are very capable learners and their capacity is equally outstanding when it comes to mobile technologies. They often know their way around their parent’s phone better than the parent.
But in the modern world when kids are exposed to so much, the growing technology has put more pressure on parents to monitor their children’s activities.
“Children see their parents using their mobile devices and they want to play too. While a device can be useful in terms of teaching them the basics and more in a fun way, if you don’t get the balance right it can be dangerous as well,” says Rita explaining that kids might get addicted to games and end up spending hours just playing and hampering their eyesight in the process.
Security and limiting the exposure to unwarranted content also seem to be issues that need addressing. Already, many smartphones have restriction menus that allow parents to block certain phone functions, or mature content. And there are a growing number of smartphone applications that at least claim to give parents some level of control on a phone’s web browser.
“I don’t think that technology in itself is bad. The benefits vastly outweigh the risks. But parents do need to be aware and cautious,” says Rita.
The dilemma, especially for parents, is to strike a balance between facilitating learning and protecting a child from risks. The answer probably lies in unintrusive vigilance as well as setting limitations. Children should also be encouraged to use these technologies as educational tools and not as “status symbols.” Gadgets are on their way of becoming a way of life for kids, and it’s our responsibility to ensure that children use them in a way that aids their learning curve.
cillakhatry@gmail.com
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