Dear Families,
The end of this school year is fast approaching! How is this possible? Our final Unit of Study, "Look At Me Now!" supports your child in reflecting on how they have grown over the course of the year. We will also look at ways we keep healthy and safe over the school break. Please take a moment to read the overview of this new Unit of Study, below:
As you prepare for possible travel and more time at home, parents often ask us questions such as, “What is UWCSEA’s approach to technology in the classroom?” or “What is the appropriate amount of screen time for my child in K1?” or even, “How do I get my child off the iPad?! He/she gets upset when I take it away!”
“Do not confine children to your own learning, for they were born in another time.”
-Chinese Proverb
For many of us parents, our children are growing up in a world that is very different from the one we grew up in. For myself, I did not have internet in my home until 2011. For our K1 children, however, they will grow up only knowing what it is like to have constant digital access. Whether you are in support of digital technologies for young children, or against them, there is one thing for certain: Digital technologies are here to stay.
In this week’s blog post, I aim to answer a few of your questions about digital technology in our K1 classroom in the hopes that some of this information will help you to navigate the choppy waters of parenting in the digital age!
What is our approach to digital and information literacy at UWCSEA?
At UWCSEA, we believe that digital technologies can play a positive role in a child’s learning and development. K1 children are developing a sense of innovation and creativity. They are curious about learning and the world around them. They are exploring many new ways of communicating -- through language, crayons, markers, paint, dramatic play, singing and dancing. Digital technologies can provide them with one more way in which they can demonstrate their creativity. In addition, understanding digital technologies is an important 21st century learner competency. By the time your children leave us at the end of Grade 12, we know that they will need to be highly proficient and responsible digital citizens.
With the above in mind, we use digital technologies in our classrooms intentionally and in developmentally appropriate ways. We consider ways in which digital technologies can be used to support our educational goals, extending learning and development in ways that would not be possible otherwise. To help facilitate and guide this, we have Digital Literacy Coaches that work with and support our teachers in the Infant School. We also have clearly articulated curriculum benchmarks.
Below is an example of one of our K1 Digital and Information Literacy benchmarks:
STRAND: Digital Creation
CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING: Individuals can explore a variety of digital modes to produce artefacts to undertake a creative process
BENCHMARK: Create artefacts using the digital modes of video, audio, image, text and data
What does the above benchmark look like in action in K1? Students explore their world using digital cameras, audio and video recorders. They learn to record their ideas digitally using appropriate apps (for example, they might draw on a touchscreen to create a graphic representation of their experience). Our students learn to use digital technologies as tools to support and document their learning.
What amount of “screen time” is appropriate?
This is a complex question with no clear answer. What makes it challenging to answer is this: not all “screen time” is equal. Passive engagement with a screen is not conducive to deep learning (so, none is best). Active engagement with a screen, however, can be a different story!
Any use of technology that gets in the way of the healthy cognitive, social, emotional, physical or linguistic development of a child should be avoided. Handing a child an ipad or phone to keep them busy is not an appropriate use of digital technologies. Engaging with digital technologies should not replace time for active play and socialising with family members and peers.
Active engagement with technology, in developmentally appropriate ways, can enhance learning. They can provide tools in which a child can explore, create, problem-solve, think, listen, observe, document, research and view critically. Appropriate experiences with digital technologies allow children to control the medium and outcome of the experience, to explore the functionality of the tools, and to pretend how they might use them in real life. The important idea here is to support children in being creators in using technology -- not passive consumers of technology. In an ideal situation, K1 children are engaging with technology alongside an adult, so they can discuss together what they are learning and creating.
In looking at the research, there seems to be an agreement that there is not really any screen time that is appropriate prior to the age of 2 years old. For K1 aged students, the International Society for Technology in Education recommends basic skills in technology operations and concepts by age 5. At UWCSEA, we agree that there are digital and information literacy skills that are appropriate for K1 students to acquire. We don’t think in terms of “screen time”. Instead, we consider uses for digital technologies to enhance learning. There are a lot of potential learning applications for digital technologies in a K1 context. To be honest, however, most of our day is spent on good old fashioned play and mark making on paper.
Technology is a part of life -- while we can teach digital citizenship skills at school, they begin at home
Children’s experiences with digital technologies are a part of the context of their lives. By the time children join us in K1, most have already been exposed to all types of digital technologies. Your role as a parent is to think carefully about how you will manage technology in your home as the habits you set now could last a lifetime for your child.
A great place to begin is with discussions around digital citizenship. Digital citizenship might be defined as “the norms of appropriate, responsible behaviour with regard to technology use.” How do you, as a parent, model digital citizenship to your child? Remember, your children are watching you!
Do you talk to your child about what you are posting?
Do you monitor which apps they are using?
Do you have a family media plan? (What are the rules for using digital technologies in your home?)
You, the parent, are in charge of the family media plan
While parents get the final say in what goes into the family media plan, it is still important to involve children in the decision making so that they can understand the “why” behind family guidelines.
Consider:
- When is your child allowed to play on the iPad/phone/computer? For how long?
- What are they going to play? How are they allowed to use the technology?
- Who will supervise and/or interact with them while they engage with the technology?
Keep in mind:
- Give a 5 minute warning before it is time to put it away -- just like adults, children need time to “wrap up” what they are working on!
- Establish a charging station in the home that is outside of your child’s bedroom
- Establish spaces in the home that are “digital free”, and spaces where children are welcome to engage with digital technologies (safely supervised)
- What is easiest, is not always best. If your child gets visibly agitated when it is time to put the iPad away, it might be time to reconsider your approach (and cut down the screen time!)
As mentioned earlier, we model for our children the appropriate use of technology. It is hard to speak to children about the importance of monitoring screen time if we are not modelling this ourselves.
In a 2017 study called “Learning on Hold: Cell phones sidetrack parent-child interactions” (Reed, Hirsh-Pasek & Golinkoff, 2017), researchers found that children’s vocabulary development is impacted when phones interrupt parent-child interactions. They learned that it is not just the quantity of language input that matters for language learning -- it is also the quality of the interaction. Word learning depends on responsive, back and forth conversations that are both timely and meaningful. While this piece of research was done with toddlers, what are the implications for our K1 children? If you are interested in a summary of this research, you can find it here: Learning on Hold
I myself am guilty of looking at my phone when riding in a taxi with my children. What opportunities to talk to them am I missing out on? We are increasingly seeing children on iPads and phones at the dinner table when we are out and about in Singapore. When we hand a child an iPad at the dinner table, we rob them of the opportunity to engage in rich conversations with us, connect with us, practice their communication and social skills, and acquire new vocabulary. We need to start reflecting intentionally on how we are using digital technologies in the daily lives of our children, and the impact this can have on their development.
In summary, technology can be a powerful learning tool -- it comes down to how it is used and for what purposes.
If you have any further questions, comments or concerns about digital technologies in K1, please reach out to your child’s classroom teacher.
We are here to help!
The K1 Team
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