Have you ever asked a child these days to model talking on the phone? How are their hand shaped? Their palm is held flat to their face… technology is forever changing and kids are paying attention!
Toddler with Phone. By IStock
Technology implementation in schools has become a hot topic with varying views. At the core technology and learning are intertwined. No longer is technology seen as solely playing a TedTalk for 15 minutes on the projector, it has now grown a life of its own. Like it or not, children are exposed to technology at a young age at home and at school.
Reasons why you should unplug your children from their devices by Verywell Family
Additionally, they bring their smart devices EVERYWHERE and we mean EVERYWHERE. Thus, it is crucial that educators are aware of inclusive technologies, blended models of learning, interactive games, and privacy around technology use in schools. Though we could go on a rant about each of those topics, we will be focusing on answering the question: How young should students be exposed to technology in school?
Relationship to the Topic
We had decided that there is no one age that is the right answer, students are consistently around technology from a young age. Technology is woven into the world in which our students are learning to navigate. It is our responsibility to show our students how to interact with it in a helpful and healthy way.
On an everyday basis, children are exposed to household electronics so the groundwork is laid even before students walk into kindergarten. These household items include the following:
· Google homes/voice activated assistant
· Smart TV
· Parents phone
· ipad
Pros & Cons
We’ve decided to create an infographic to best display our research findings which can be seen below
Best Practices
Technology can become a slippery slope of using it as a distraction or a time filler for teachers, this is why it is so important to model and moderate healthy technology interaction. When integrating tech into our lessons it should be to enhance the lesson and bring another level of learning (or tool) instead of a time filler or “babysitter.” This can be seen as:
· Screen time limits
· Educational tools/games
· Healthy boundaries, does not need to be in every lesson
According to the UN, worldwide, youth are nearly two times more networked than the global population as a whole. With a statistic such as this, we need to make sure that students have a strong foundation of tech literacy. This reminded us of almost like a health class, you work with the basics in kindergarten and through the years as students become more mature and capable they become aware of the risks and benefits.
Our view
In our opinion, in schools there is no age limitations on technology as long as it is used in a purposeful way, and it is our jobs as teachers to show students the possibilities. If you are looking for more information on this hot topic, we urge you to watch this short video below.
