As children grow up from babies to toddlers to preschools to kindergarteners, ready to now move on to elementary school, many parents, like myself, begin to really consider how much their children need to know about technology, how it needs to be integrated in their schools and at home in these early elementary years. I let my children, even encourage, them to use iPad apps for learning to write letters, reading, math and games. Is continual interaction with devices like iPads, okay for them in the long run?
Awake way too early one day this week, I found myself reading a New York Times article on technology and kids. While the article is about older children and how their lives are interrupted by technology (for the most part), I began to wonder for my children who grew up having an iPod Touch, iPad, Droid, etc at their fingertips how they would see technology. For this age and generation, it's not only a way of talking to/texting friends but a source of continual answers. I'm sure there will be some element of distractoin and interruption from the coming innovations in entertainment/information for our children. But they don't have to be a distraction.
Instead, if carefully thought out from the time when they are small children, these devices should be an extention on learning and fun. The important part will be to emphasize the "extention." They are not the reality but a tool to better understand our reality.
Our young children need to grow up with these tools as aids in exploring their world. They need to go outdoors, look around for themselves, ask questions of the universe. We need to talk about these things together. But they also need to rach out through technology to answer their questions, look for solutions to problems and make connections with other places in the world (or out of this world).
It comes down to balance, just like with every other part of life.
We don't want them only texting and Facebooking down the line but talking to people in person, interacting. We need to remember walks through the forest together then using apps on forest creatures. Look through telescopes and use apps to explain the stars names. We need to look with our eyes, take photos and videos, have dinner together, read books together, play on the iPad together, play board games together, listen to their stories and share ours. We need to encourage their imaginations, let them be bored, entertain them, travel together, talk about things we see, color on paper and on the touchscreen. Teach them that asking questions and finding answers from experiments and google searches are both important. Let them enjoy silence and music and sounds of nature and movies and games. The list goes on.
It's not the technology that is the problem. It is the lack of balance between using technology and forgetting to do all of the other things, especially a lack of together time. For me, that means I will continue to use iPads, computers and other technologies with my children. I don't think they will do anything but add to their quest for knowledge and intereaction with the world, as long as they are not left to be the only thing they do for "fun."
Follow me on Twitter @AngeleExaminer.
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