I wrote a guest blog post for the Neighborhood Parents Network. It contains some tips for using educational technology with preschoolers and kindergartners. Head over to the NPN Website to check it out. Here’s an excerpt:
In my classroom, we have two simple rules for using tablets: be gentle, and try not to sneeze or drool too much. The kids laugh when tell them this. It is a joke for the most part. But I see our students’ eyes open wide when they catch a glimpse of an iPad, and I do wonder if they begin to salivate.
Tablets have burst onto the educational landscape with remarkable speed. While children clamor to get their fingers on the nearest touch screen, parents and educators must weigh the technology’s exciting potential against a host of unknowns.
That’s a good rule for tablets. Our tablet at home is covered with little spots from our kids’ drool and sneezing. The kids just hover over it while they use the learning apps. I should probably spray it down with sanitizer.