13 August 2006
Technology investment for children's education
Perfectly timed before the start of school, the editor of Children's Technology Review, Warren Buckleitner has provided his opinions on technology products designed to help children learn. These products are for children down to three years old.
For about $60, parents can purchase something similar to a Gameboy that teaches letters, phonics, spelling, numbers, math, etc. Another device that connects to a television provides similar learning practice for the same price. Even better though there are some services that are free via the Internet. Some notable websites include Toledo Public Schools (about 100 "learning resources") and Ohio Department of Education. Test Prep Review is for students preparing for the SAT and other tests. For about $70 parents can purchase Inspiration, which is a brainstorming application that can help with writing and organizing your thoughts. A program I would personally recommend though is Freemind which is a very good Open Source application that I have used myself. And don't forget to include Google and Wikipedia in your choices of learning materials. Wikipedia sometimes needs to be used with some judgment as not everything there is as useful as it should be, but for the most part it is very useful and accurate.
I personally believe very much in the power of technology for learning and have used a computer myself when I was young to learn. The main point is for parents to limit what the children do on the computer. I don't mean limit their access to things but make sure they are using it for learning more than for playing. Games are fine so long as there is some educational value in them. Also don't try to save money on the educational products. I don't say buy the must expensive, but buy something you can afford that will last for several years and will provide your child with good quality material. While I like the idea of the $60 and $70 products that Warren mentions I would encourage parents of children about 5 and above to save a bit and purchase an actual computer for the child. If you focus it only on education and not gaming the computer should be able to last the child five to eight or more years and still be ok for the child to use for school projects. There is an investment that has real value if you can keep it through a child's entire primary school time. There are very few other products that you can buy children that are so long lasting.
For about $60, parents can purchase something similar to a Gameboy that teaches letters, phonics, spelling, numbers, math, etc. Another device that connects to a television provides similar learning practice for the same price. Even better though there are some services that are free via the Internet. Some notable websites include Toledo Public Schools (about 100 "learning resources") and Ohio Department of Education. Test Prep Review is for students preparing for the SAT and other tests. For about $70 parents can purchase Inspiration, which is a brainstorming application that can help with writing and organizing your thoughts. A program I would personally recommend though is Freemind which is a very good Open Source application that I have used myself. And don't forget to include Google and Wikipedia in your choices of learning materials. Wikipedia sometimes needs to be used with some judgment as not everything there is as useful as it should be, but for the most part it is very useful and accurate.
I personally believe very much in the power of technology for learning and have used a computer myself when I was young to learn. The main point is for parents to limit what the children do on the computer. I don't mean limit their access to things but make sure they are using it for learning more than for playing. Games are fine so long as there is some educational value in them. Also don't try to save money on the educational products. I don't say buy the must expensive, but buy something you can afford that will last for several years and will provide your child with good quality material. While I like the idea of the $60 and $70 products that Warren mentions I would encourage parents of children about 5 and above to save a bit and purchase an actual computer for the child. If you focus it only on education and not gaming the computer should be able to last the child five to eight or more years and still be ok for the child to use for school projects. There is an investment that has real value if you can keep it through a child's entire primary school time. There are very few other products that you can buy children that are so long lasting.
Labels: education, internet, OSS
