How Tech Innovation Affect Children’s Development in Preschools.
3rd May 2020
Reading Time : 5 Minutes
Impact Of Technology In Early Childhood Education.
Children today are born into a world where technology is deeply seated into the fabric of our daily life and it plays a positive role in a child’s learning process, growth and overall development if used wisely.
eLearning in Education.
Early childhood educators now have access to more innovative teaching methods than before that allows them to create an active learning environment for children. When preschoolers explore, research and learn by doing they tend to get more passionate and inquisitive to know more. The use of technology in preschools is increasing day by day. Many educators across countries have adopted eLearning for pre-schoolers which assists in a child’s social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development and to make each child’s learning process interesting and smooth.
However, an important question remains unanswered that how eLearning for kids is helpful? Here are a few reasons:
eLearning helps expand classroom boundaries.
Nowadays classrooms don’t have literal walls. The learning environment no longer has boundaries. A child can gain knowledge sitting anywhere in the world with just the use of the internet and digital devices. This exercise of self-learning helps a child learn digital literacy and 21st-century digital skills which will be useful when he/she decides to enter the workforce in the future.
Importance of eLearning
With the use of technology, a child could access course materials online, watch video-recorded lectures, interact with educators via video call, participate in a debate/study group online and do many such things. Technology has opened up the possibility for educators to teach the concept of blended learning - a mixture of classroom technology & face-to-face learning through collaborative group work & hybrid Digital Classrooms. When online learning for kids is introduced in early childhood class setting, eLearning program should be integrated with other learning tools like art materials, writing materials, play materials, and books. This integrated program should be used in rotation to allow preschoolers to have an authentic learning experience.
eLearning Enhances Creativity, Freedom of Expression & Interaction
In the past children only had art supplies like crayons, coloured pens and pencils at their disposal to get imaginative whereas now they have various digital devices like computers, tablets and many more to help them turn their imagination into creative reality. Tech-innovative early childhood classrooms or hybrid digital classrooms don’t involve a class full of students learning by just reading from a book. Working groups, group activities, discussions & debates and play activities encourage the establishment of group dynamics as interactivity provides a better learning experience.
eLearning For Kindergarten Improves Kid’s Engagement
Educating young children with the use of technology can make learning more collaborative & interactive which helps them to engage better with the course material because now instead of memorizing every line of their curriculum they can learn by doing.
For instance – Children can now learn either by taking an interactive quiz in a tech-enabled class, participating in tech-enabled group discussion, practicing science experiments in a virtual lab or taking a virtual field trip.
Young children require hands-on exploratory and socially interactive classrooms with trusted educators to help them develop cognitive, language, motor and social & emotional skills and tech-focused classrooms can enable this type of learning process for them wherein they don’t have to learn by staring at the board & a book.
A digital classroom is like a stepping stone onto the world of modern invention. The internet & Digital devices should be viewed as an unexplored area by the educators and not as a threat to their occupation.
