You already knew that the average kid is far more advanced in modern technology than most adults, didn’t you? But, did you know that even without any prompting from a teacher, three- and four-year-olds can navigate an iPod and learn a multitude of skills quite easily? The mental picture alone makes me smile and that it’s a true story makes it even better.
As an experiment, teachers in a Massachusetts preschool, with children of mixed abilities, set out several iPods along with toys. During “free choice time,” the children were allowed to select anything they wanted to play with. Although the teachers said nothing about the iPods, and the iPods were not even on, every child not only chose them, but also had no difficulty turning them on and using them.
Filled with age-appropriate applications to enable children to learn letters, numbers, shapes, colors, sounds and words, the iPods thrilled the children with the sound effects. Animal sounds, noises after wrong answers and other sounds for correct answers all encouraged the children to play longer and to absorb more information. Although the novelty eventually wore off, and the iPod became just another toy, the information gained was retained. And that’s what we call learning! How wonderful!
The fact that three and four-year-olds (even those designated “special ed”) could figure out how to use these devices, without any assistance from the teachers, astounds me. Imagine how much these young children will learn when the teacher does use the iPod to interact with them! Although not every school can afford iPods, this really makes a strong case for using technology even with the youngest children. The fact is, children enjoy it; and whatever makes learning enjoyable will encourage the pursuit of it.
That’s my opinion. What do you think?
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