Technology can benefit young learners, but its use should be monitored

Technology now touches every aspect of day-to-day life, and that means teachers and principals need to develop a clear strategy to use it in early childhood education. Few question the need to introduce children to the basic tools of the modern world as early as possible. But many parents are still wary of schools which use iPads in class, feeling that information technology is not always best suited to their child’s educational needs.

Ginny Humpage, head of curriculum at Bebegarten Education Centre, says she keeps such views in mind. “The implementation of technology in the classroom is not a substitute for creativity or face-to-face communication,” she notes. “Technology is simply an additional tool used to support learning where it’s appropriate.”

Classes for those aged six months to one year make use of non-functioning IT devices as role-play items, and also watch projections to stimulate visual experiences. There is a deliberate policy of limiting the types of such activities, and the time spent on them, says Humpage.

The school recognises that technology is now so embedded in children’s everyday lives, it is easy for them to become “dependent” on it, even from a very young age. The long-term consequences can only be guessed at, but Humpage thinks they are unlikely to be positive.

“The concern [as kids get older] is that it can hinder communication, creative and social skills, interfere with sleep, and affect behaviour,” Humpage says. “Some children don’t have the chance to become bored, and that is actually a worry. It is healthy to experience boredom, as it makes us learn creative ways to occupy our time, without relying on text messaging or playing computer games.”

Humpage adds that hi-tech devices respond so quickly during use that children become more impatient in “real life”. They expect instant results and lose the capacity to wait. But when used in moderation, technology in the classroom can enhance, support, and deepen a child’s education. Its advantages are clearly seen in fact-finding activities, problem-solving exercises, the visual arts, documentation, and science projects.