Start Early
This post is part of an ongoing series of chapters from the book CHOICE. Please view this post for an introduction and table of contents. To keep up with each new chapter published, please subscribe.
Getting devices in the hands of students as early as possible is important. A students' first exposure to technology is now at home. Parents have smartphones, smart TVs, tablets, game consoles, and computers at home. Some or all being used by their children.
Devices are used for everything in the home. Viewing entertainment, controlling the lights, or reading their favorite books.
Students are entering their schools with a premade bias towards technology. At home they are an Apple, Google, or Microsoft family.
This is a stark contract to how I grew up (and I suspect, many of the readers have). My first exposure to using a computer was in schools. I learned how to use a device for education before finding it an entertainment device.
A student's first exposure to technology is as an entertainment device. And this isn't he students fault, or the parents fault. Everything we do today revolves around a device/screen that can do it all. Kids don't have work today. So the device they have in their home is there for entertainment. There isn't anything else for the child to do.
This is why getting technology in student's hands early is important. A student needs to learn how to use a device for school work. For life outside of entertainment. Using technology for education is a habit. The longer a device is for entertainment only, the harder the habit is to change.
Author Comments
Providing a peak behind the curtain of the thought and writing process.
Technology and the internet has becoming an all encompassing aspect of our lives. Through a screen, we can access the entire world. As parents, how can we not give out children access to this technology.
I am part of the same trend. My children had an iPad bias before stepping foot in a classroom. They knew how to use the device and access whatever they needed through that screen.
The school’s role has changed. We aren’t trying to introduce the students to technology, we are trying to teach them how to use the technology productively. How to be a digital citizen and understand what power they have with that screen.
What was your first use of a computer? Was it at home, at school, at work? Let us know in the comments.