Here is a question for the ages: are today's toddlers learning more in their few, short years than we ever learned in our entire Gen X childhood? When I was in first grade, my reading skills were so abominable I was relegated to the "yellow" group. This was the group chopped-full of slow, remedial readers, like me. Why yellow? I have no idea, but it stuck and I still seethe with rage. Being labeled as "slow" is something a child (or adult) doesn't forget. It's a stigma -- it's one you carry with you throughout your academic career. Sure it was a logical way to divide the kids to accommodate different reading levels and make the most of the time allotted, but once that label is placed on a childs fragile, eggshell mind -- it sticks.
With low expectations come low standards. The public schools in this country try their best but usually when kids come out of high school they are jaded and sarcastic teens that have low self standards for themselves and others. Technology wasn't really a factor when I was in school. We had clunky machines that would offer us really bad graphics and multiple choice questions. Nothing to inspire the imagination to say the least. Today tells a different story. My niece is so comfortable with computers that it's awe-inspiring. By age two and a half she knew how to use a cursor and click in and out of websites. She could use the refresh button and highlight text. I'm sure it'll be on her generation's watch that teleportation will become ubiquitous.
I was in the technological "yellow" group as an adult. I didn't have a cellphone until I was twenty-five. I sent my first text message when I was twenty-seven. My first real comprehension of the word technology was slipping quarters into arcade games like PAC MAN. As the years go by, I find myself shunning technology in the same grumpy, dismissive way my father used to. Does technology help a child learn vocabulary words, mathematics, and science? I know developmental programs like BABY WORDSWORTH and EINSTEIN are pretty popular with the toddler set, but it still takes a loving parent to facilitate. Can programs make children better learners? Maybe. Probably. But for me, it's kind of too little too late.
More than new gadgets and suave, slick computer graphics, I think that a tool is only as effective as it is used. Flash cards were very effective for me -- it's how I learned vocabulary. Seeing that the world has had paper for about 4,000 years or so, and the mega pixel for only about 20, I'm struck by how quickly we're eager to move away from fibers to fiberoptics. But having my parents quiz me on my homework was pretty effective. It comes down to time spent. If a child has a parent or a teacher that spends the time to help and teach them, then it doesn't really matter whether the child is writing with a crayon or typing on a keypad.
I think there is also a new way of looking at teaching that hopefully my niece will benefit from. This newer way of communicating with children has to do with not stamping a child with a label. We must consider the possibility that humans are emotional learners and that the psychology of learning plays a huge part in our development. My mother told me a story of her first day of school. Her mother told her not to raise her hand up in class unless she was one hundred percent sure that she knew the answer. So my mother kept silent most of her way through grade school. I hope we as a culture can give our kids a more open, less critical environment, where they only have high expectations and a caring adult who helps them whether it be in front of a computer screen or a piece of paper. - 29957
With low expectations come low standards. The public schools in this country try their best but usually when kids come out of high school they are jaded and sarcastic teens that have low self standards for themselves and others. Technology wasn't really a factor when I was in school. We had clunky machines that would offer us really bad graphics and multiple choice questions. Nothing to inspire the imagination to say the least. Today tells a different story. My niece is so comfortable with computers that it's awe-inspiring. By age two and a half she knew how to use a cursor and click in and out of websites. She could use the refresh button and highlight text. I'm sure it'll be on her generation's watch that teleportation will become ubiquitous.
I was in the technological "yellow" group as an adult. I didn't have a cellphone until I was twenty-five. I sent my first text message when I was twenty-seven. My first real comprehension of the word technology was slipping quarters into arcade games like PAC MAN. As the years go by, I find myself shunning technology in the same grumpy, dismissive way my father used to. Does technology help a child learn vocabulary words, mathematics, and science? I know developmental programs like BABY WORDSWORTH and EINSTEIN are pretty popular with the toddler set, but it still takes a loving parent to facilitate. Can programs make children better learners? Maybe. Probably. But for me, it's kind of too little too late.
More than new gadgets and suave, slick computer graphics, I think that a tool is only as effective as it is used. Flash cards were very effective for me -- it's how I learned vocabulary. Seeing that the world has had paper for about 4,000 years or so, and the mega pixel for only about 20, I'm struck by how quickly we're eager to move away from fibers to fiberoptics. But having my parents quiz me on my homework was pretty effective. It comes down to time spent. If a child has a parent or a teacher that spends the time to help and teach them, then it doesn't really matter whether the child is writing with a crayon or typing on a keypad.
I think there is also a new way of looking at teaching that hopefully my niece will benefit from. This newer way of communicating with children has to do with not stamping a child with a label. We must consider the possibility that humans are emotional learners and that the psychology of learning plays a huge part in our development. My mother told me a story of her first day of school. Her mother told her not to raise her hand up in class unless she was one hundred percent sure that she knew the answer. So my mother kept silent most of her way through grade school. I hope we as a culture can give our kids a more open, less critical environment, where they only have high expectations and a caring adult who helps them whether it be in front of a computer screen or a piece of paper. - 29957
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If you happen to be looking for effective learning software that may help make teleportation possible, you could do far worse than what not Baby Wordworth software programs and what not like.
