Monday 21 October 2013

Technology and Children

As I sat this evening after supper watching my two daughters each on their own computer playing/learning on Starfall and Raz-Kids, I started to wonder about a couple of different things.

I started to wonder about those students that do not have access to technology in the home.  Does this access to technology start to widen the educational gap further?  Is this gap even more pronounced in a rural vs urban setting?  I have had high school students sit in my office that do not even have a phone in the house let alone access to the internet.  As well there are many areas that having access to the internet is just not feasible.  So when those students come to school does that make the teachers job even harder as they are not only trying to teach to diverse learning abilities, but now the diverse technological abilities!  As I have learnt about BYOD and Flipping the Classroom, is this even feasible in some schools?

The other thing I started to think about was how it is amazing how a young child has many tools at their hands to learn almost anything if they so desire and sometimes is it school getting in the way of them?  I remembered a video on TED Talks about technology, learning, and teaching.

As I consider these two thoughts I realize that technology is not going to go anywhere, but what can be done to make sure that all kids have access to it? How do we foster interest in all children so that education can happen?

Well it is not Sunday, but it is only one day late so I will take that as goal met for this week!!

1 comment:

  1. I teach in an inner-city school and although some of my students have technology at home, not all of them do. This lack of access to technology can widen the education gap, however this is where I see the importance of educators. In my classroom I use technology in different capacities. I like that you mentioned RAZ kids and Starfall because my students utilize both of these tools during Daily 5 in our Language Arts time. I hope to influence my students' learning using technology while I have them from 8:53 to 3:37 each day!

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