Tuesday, June 25, 2013

#blogjune Post 25 - Revist: How Young is too Young for Technology?

Back in blog post 9 I pondered how young is too young for technology?

@shewgirl who originally prompted my pondering has responded to my post with Is the use of technology dependent on age?

Let's just start by saying that I agree with @shewgirl's (and I wish predictive text would stop changing this to @showgirl) that public libraries are in an excellent position to show how technology can be used to support learning and development.

If you think about it, at one stage in our lifetime, books were referred to as futuristic objects and sometimes feared by what they contained and thoughts they provoked.  The same can be said about technology.

I have witnessed how my own child interacts with technology - pick up an iPad and of she goes with little need for instruction on how to use it - it is almost intuitive.  It's second nature.  The same with computers and hand held game devices - or any hand held mobile device.

Just a child seems to know that they should turn the pages - often after they had tasted them - they know that if they touch the screen something will happen.  If they move the mouse, something will happen.  If they press the button, something will happen.

Learning, as most of us know, is made up of using all of our senses (or all the one's available to us) - listening, speaking, seeing, and touching.  You can add tasting (although not the recommended learning tool for all things) as well.  I'm sure there is more, but you get the picture.

By introducing a child to a device such as an iPad, we are providing just another way of learning.  And by assisting parents and carers by showing them how the device can be used and what apps/programs to use - then we are meeting one of our many roles as librarians - empowering people with information.

I only wish we had more iPads to offer a program such as iTots on a larger scale, but we can work on that.

1 comment:

  1. My niece and nephew could unlock an iPhone before they could walk. This was a contentious issue in our house. My sister didn't want them gaming - ever - and she saw iDevices as an extension of this. We argued, I sent her empirical evidence about why kids need to game, we argued some more. Then one day we had a tantruming boy who was being dried after his bath who just would not lie still. We gave him an iPhone and voila. Still child!

    Not that I'm advocating giving tech to kids to stop them being naughty or make them be quiet - it had just been a really, really bad day and I thought some music might help. He was inquisitive about where the music was coming from.

    We do limit screen time, but probably not as much as other people. It's hard to justify when they see me constantly connected. But they have learned SO MUCH from using iDevices from a young age.

    They are bilingual, and iPad apps that allow you to switch languages are fantastic for them, because they speak English pretty much exclusively with us, and Spanish exclusively with their papa. They choose which language to use on the iPads and this lets them engage with the other language even if they're in their 'Spanish house' or their 'English house'.

    They learned to recognise their names and other words very early. They could type their names long before they had the dexterity to write them with a pencil. We read books in print and then we explore them on an app.

    My nephew in particular loves YouTube. We are about to embark on making our own stop motion videos and our own lego reviews. He's four, and this is something he wants to do. At four, I'm not even sure I'd ever seen a stop motion video! We have had many, many learning opportunities around online content and what is and isn't appropriate for them to watch. We always sit with them while they use YouTube (although they can navigate on their own - we do a search for them and they follow recommendations), but they are completely, 100% aware of what is appropriate for them to watch and what isn't, and most of the time, they can tell by the cover image. So many learning opportunities.

    Anyway, the moral of this story is I don't think a child is ever too young to be exposed to technology. And the type of program you're running is great for the kids, and it's great for the parents because they can learn how to engage with their kids through tech. But it's AWESOME because you're not just teaching the kids or the adults how to interact with kids' apps, but because the adults are learning how to use these tools themselves.

    As for getting more iPads: apply for grants. I was involved in delivering training for Logan City Council Libraries who won a SLQ grant to fund training and iPads.

    Good luck!

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