lend me your ears

Here’s the link to my curriculum page on Internet evaluation for 4th and 5th graders:

http://www2.gvsu.edu/~frensj

As a elementary school teacher, I feel very strongly about students interacting with “real life” before interacting with virtual life. The hue and cry over technology replacing authentic experience is not necessary. Both experiences can co-exist. The question becomes, what is the ethical balance?

For me, the ethics is determined by the progression–what is introduced first. Some may find it counter-intuitive that a computer teacher has a queasy feeling when she sees a 5- or 6-year-old doing a puzzle online when there is a wooden or boxed puzzle available or when that same child is digitally painting when fingerpaints are sitting on a shelf in the same room.

Yes, there is something quite “neat”–in every sense of the word–about digital or technological replicas of toys and experiences. Yet, young children, especially,  need to hold, touch, feel–>actually cut and paste–>discover through tactile and kinesthetic experiences before they are able to use these experiences as metaphor.

I have discovered that in about 3rd grade, some children are able to grasp the concept of “cut and paste” as a metaphor. Otherwise, children seem to comprehend the act of “cutting and pasting” on a computer as some kind of magic. I have even tried to go a step further by saying that the words / pictures / etc. have not really “disappeared” when they are cut, but have gone onto an “invisible clipboard” . . . well, you can see where I have lost them, at this point. Children need to see that you can physically cut words and pictures and then physically move them and then paste them some place else before they can fully realize “cut and paste” on a computer.

This post has not even approached the topic of whether a mouse and / or keyboard were designed for the developing fine motor skills of young children. Have you ever witnessed a beginning computer user (whatever age) attempt to double-click or control a mouse? Imagine what it would be like to try to do so when a mouse is designed for a hand much larger, stronger and more dexterious than your own.

Not to mention, the possible studies that raise the question of flickering monitor light on developing eyes . . .

Many considerations arise . . . and yet I have also witnessed the captivating power of the immediacy of digital images. The same 4- or 5-year-old pre-readers whose computer skills were under question in the puzzle and painting scenarios mentioned above, can just as easily benefit from the digital images of food items on a school menu before they know how to read the menu choices. They can use tiny cut-outs of their own faces to learn how to create graphs–personalizing a math lesson. They can help to locate and take pictures of letters and numbers on the playground or in every day life to create and publish a book of numbers, letters and words.

In short, technology is not the enemy encroaching on ”real life” experiences. It is a resource–dare I use the cliche–a tool, misused by some but thoughtfully applied by others. Our responsibility is to tip the balance in the direction that benefits us all.