Exploring the 3Ws of a Tablet in School Why, When and What?

Exploring the 3Ws of a Tablet in School Why, When and What?

Date: 15^th March 2017/Wednesday

This time my blog begins by exploring 3 important yet interesting questions, why, when and what of a tablet. An interesting discussion which opens doors to limit less thoughts in the minds of a parent, a teacher, any educator or any concerned individual. But have no worries you will find at least some answers to all these questions, queries, concerns in the blog below.

Let’s begin by finding answers to why should we introduce tablets in schools? What’s the urgency? The most obvious answers include interactive nature of the device, instead of offering just a passive experience, it lets children be part of the activities, they could sing along, drag and drop objects, provide feedback etc, it lets children take control of the activities, it rewards them for the work, lets them try again and again if something goes wrong (repetitive nature), try at own pace, no fear of being stopped in the middle of an activity, provides feedback, easy drag and drop (touch/swipe facility), attractive and colourful and the list is endless.

Just to back up my findings, a recent research study by Professor Annette Karmiloff-Smith published in June 2015 says that babies should be given tablets or ipads at birth because they learn faster with computers than from books. It further says that using tablets provides more simulation for brains than books. Books are a static source while tablets are visually appealing to children. They learn to drag and drop/scroll up and scroll down much faster than adults do which is true and I completely agree to it. Another research too suggests that infants seem to be able to learn to tap and flick a screen before they have fully developed fine motor control (Cristia & Seidl, 2015).

I am sure most of us who have kids have observed similar behaviour of kids while using tablets or smart phones at homes. Once you hand over the device to kids, though they might not be able to read it but in the next few minutes they will end up amazing you by downloading apps from the app store. Professor Annette though did mention in the study that unhealthy addiction of technology might lead to disabling some connections in the brain.

While exploring a little further I came across a Tablet project (v http://www.bbk.ac.uk/tablet_project/) initiated at the University of Birkbeck, London by Professor Annette Karmiloff-Smith and Tim Smith, who wanted to find the effects of rise in technology on early child development. During a discussion with the APS (Association for Psychological Science) team both mentioned that toddlers find tablets different from traditional toys and the reason being variety in responses, frequency of responses and complexity of responses which results in heightened cognitive activity, which is not possible with a traditional toy. To another question about the effect of tablets on child development, they reflected that actively playing video games leads to enhanced visual processing, attention and motor control (Green & Bavelier, 2008) while passive viewing of TV has been related to decrease in language ability.

Why

ü Repetitive Nature (Try again and again)

ü Touchfunction (swipe/drag/drop/scroll)

ü Interactive nature

ü Diverse activities (low to high level)

ü Rewarding /Feedback

ü Learn at own pace/control feature

ü Audio Visual support

I hope my responses to the why of tablets have resulted in some queries and concerns to evaporate in thin air. Now coming to my second question when to introduce tablets in schools. While skimming through an article online by Laura Lewis Brown, “When to introduce tablet to your child”, I came across an observation by Dr Carolyn Jaynes that children under 2 years learn best from real world experiences and interactions, each minute spent in front of a screen means your child is not exploring the world using their senses which is very important for their development process. However by age 3 children are active media users and can benefit from educational content. Further it states that experts recommend using tablets when the child reaches pre-school age. Which means tablets could be introduced in pre nursery or nursery (child aged 3 and above) in schools. My own observation during introduction of tablets in early classrooms reflects that kids are very enthusiastic when using such devices, they are intrigued by the colour, sound, moving objects on screen etc.

Jeannie Galindo, supervisor of instructional technology in the above article does mention that in a supervised environment children aged between 4 – 5 can engage in interactive learning activities with tablets/smartphones where as in an un supervised environment a smartphone or tablet is not advisable to be purchased till the child is aged 11 -13 years. Which I completely agree too, because there is so much content available on the internet that a child might not be able to differentiate between what is apt for him or her at this age (which is actually my third question regarding tablets).

Tablets could be introduced in schools from early classes but with a clear purpose and rationale behind the use of such devices. They could be used for middle as well as senior school too with a well-crafted action plan for their use in classrooms. It is an observation that without proper planning these devices end up being under-utilized in schools, leading to simple drill practice activities etc. Relevant apps should be explored and matched to the lesson objectives, while exploring teachers need to keep in mind the SAMR model of technology and the pyramid of Digital Blooms Taxonomy.

When

ü Not before pre-school

ü Age 3 and above/in a supervised environment

ü Age 11 -13, can purchase tablet/can be used in unsupervised environment

Coming to my third question which is extremely important regarding the content on the tablets. The What here refers to content that is useful, meaningful, interactive, engages students, leads to enhanced learning, provided opportunities for creativity, critical thinking etc.

In an article online Dr Jaynes says that what children watch and play matters, parents should be able to differentiate between an educational app and an entertainment app. They could look for age ranges on the app.

Parents could look for apps that help enhance numeracy, literacy, reading, writing skills etc. They could also explore games that encourage thinking skills, which include puzzles, memory games etc, and creative skills like drawing, creating music etc. With the appropriate collection of apps your kids tablet would be transformed into a genuine learning tool. Make separate folders category wise, install apps folder wise before sharing the tablets with kids. You could explore:

1. http://www.smartappsforkids.com/ or

2. http://www.smartappsforkids.com/android/ or

3. http://www.raisesmartkid.com/1-to-3-years-old/3-articles/56-best-educational-apps-for-toddlers-and-babies

4. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/guide/best-first-kids-apps/s/android%20device

Preferably delete all racing games or any other irrelevant apps for these devices because they only end up distracting the kids.

As a parent or any concerned educator you could download parental control apps to restrict your child access to irrelevant content on the tablets or smartphones. These apps let you not only restrict content but rather lets you limit the time the child can use the tablet, they also restrict downloading from the internet. Same goes for schools. Instead of using Youtube, encourage use of Kid Youtube for kids.

While exploring tablets for kids I came across a tablet which had pre-installed educational apps and came installed with a parent controlled Kids desktop. This app lets you create children account, set timers for use of tablet, restrict downloading from internet, limit children to apps etc.

You could try exploring such apps online. Some of these apps include Kidsplace, Net Nanny etc.

What

Look for content that is:

ü Relevant/links to real life

ü Age appropriate

ü Enhances skills like numeracy, literacy, creativity, thinking, art, music etc

ü Meaningful/In context

ü Enhances cognitive ability etc

Suggestions:

Just a few suggestions to avoid any harm to health, limit the screen time of the child, not more than half an hour a day for younger kids and 2hours for a high school student. A 20 -20 – 20 rule could be used, which means every 20 minutes spend 20 seconds looking at something 20 feet away (some clinicians suggest this, I found this while skimming through an article online).

Second parental guidance is necessary while kids are using tablets. You could get involved once a while in the activities, ask questions, appreciate the work, provide feedback etc. Also try keeping tablets or smart phones in family areas where the activity could be monitored.

Third, talk to your kids about using technology safely, responsibly and effectively. Parents and teachers are role models, try to model what you expect from them.

Hope you have enjoyed reading and have found some answers to the 3Ws of a Tablet J

Sheeba Ajmal

References:

1. When to introduce a smartphone to your child By Laura Lewis Brown

Link: http://www.pbs.org/parents/childrenandmedia/article-when-introduce-child-smartphone-tablet.html