Posted by
Cliff
on from the improving-the-K-experience dept.
andres32a asks: "I currently run a private preschool located in Latin America. I have been always interested in finding new ways of giving kids a legitimate educational advantage through fresh applications of technology. What technology would you like to have seen applied in your kindergarten?"
Truthfully, I think that it would be better to let the kindergarteners play with blocks, color with crayons, and generally let them act like little kids.
They'll have plenty of time in the coming years to learn all about computers, iPods, and cellphones. There are enough problems with people being addicted to their computers without getting the kids hooked at such a young age.
Re:Back to Basics
by
Broken+scope
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Legos are one of the best toys you can give to a child who will not ingest them. Give them the manual. Let them build once then watch them go from there.
-- You mad
Nothing PC like...
by
binaryspiral
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
There are so many educational devices that do their specific job well, that a PC is just a wasteful box in a young class.
Limits on technology aren't so bad either, let them go outside and play games, socialize, and begin building personalities.
I am curious
by
WindBourne
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
The poster RUNS a preschool. That is s?he is concerned with all aspects of a child's education. Since they are running a private one (and one with a nice web site), I would assume that they have loads of education on child development as well as how to teach. So, here you are trying to tell him how to run a pre-school (note: NOT a simple daycare). So, what experience do you have that you know so much about children pre-school AND you are also on a geek site?
Seriously, for the other posters (mgb68 and more to come), when somebody who is asking for help on something that they may not have loads of knowledge on, please do not put them down by telling them that they are wrong to explore options. It is damaging to this site, to the geek world, and the those that could use the help (and god knows that many in the world NEED help). I think that the director should be able to explore loads of good options. And yes, handling computers is now part of our society. Children will have to learn it.
For those of us with young children, I would bet that most if not all, have their children playing with the computers as well as playing on the jungle gym, the McyD's play ground, games, circle time, nap time, reading, etc. My daughter (and in about 2 years, my son) play with multiple educational packages on Linux. It is fun to watch her and she enjoys it.
-- I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
If you have loads of money, then hire somebody to put up a Windows or Mac box loaded with all sorts of commercial software...
Unless by "Mac" you're talking about System 7, I disagree completely. It seems to me that quite a lot of the so-called "educational software" advertised today completely sucks in comparison to what we had back circa 1990. Number Munchers, LOGO, Oregon Trail, Hypercard... maybe even Dino Park Tycoon... those were examples of good software for kids! If I were running a preschool I'd go dumpster-diving for that stuff rather than get something new, and it would have nothing to do with price.
--
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Depends on how much you want to spend...
by
ender-
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Since you didn't specify OSS, I can highly recommend one particular commercial product. I used to do tech and field support for this product.
|Disclaimer| I used to work for the company which distributed and supported the following products. I no longer work for said company, but feel deeply about the high quality of the product |end Disclaimer|
It is called "The Waterford Early Reading Program" [although I believe they now have Math and Science as well, but haven't personally seen these newer products]. It is currently distributed by Pearson Digital Learning [It was called Electronic Education, a division of Addison Wesley Longman when I worked there]
Anyway, the idea is that for Level One, a set of one to three computers [depending on class size] is placed in a Kindergarten [or Pre-K] classroom. Each day the students spend 15 minutes on the computer. Much like many reading programs the program guides the student through the process of learning to read, [actually the first couple days are spent teaching the child to use the mouse] using songs and games. In this case, the instruction is backed by research done by the Waterford Institute and the Waterford School [a private school in Utah]. The software is able to keep track of lessons/concepts which the student has or hasn't mastered, and can keep giving lessons on the items the student still needs help with.
In addition to the 15 minutes on the computer, each student gets a set of videos [with videos from the program], a set of cd's [with music from the program of course], and books [can you guess? With stories from the program]. These are for the students to take home, in the hopes that they can get their family to read with them, or at least play the music/video's to enforce the learning.
After Level One, they have Level 2 [First Grade] and Level 3 [Second grade] to continue building on the lessons].
In my years of supporting the product, and spending time in the classrooms, I have to say that I really believe it was a great program. The kids absolutely LOVED it! If the computers were down, the teacher would tell the kids that I was there to fix the computers. Without fail, the entire class would cheer loudly! Of only one system was down, and I had to stop some kids from using the other working computers, they would plead with me not to make them get off the computers until I swore to them that they would not lose their turn for that day.
I even had one kid stand up, turn around, look at me and pee his pants! The teacher said that this was not uncommon. The kids were so worried about losing their turn at the program, that they didn't want to get up to go to the bathroom!
There is a downside to this wonderful system though. It is NOT cheap. I don't know what the prices are these days [when I worked there, Pentium 2's were hot stuff], and I don't know what kind of deals can be done with private [especially out of US] schools. Generally the system was sold with anywhere from 1 to 3 computers plus a printer, and the cost included student sets [books/vid/cd's] and support for three years.
Generally our sales force spent 20% of their time selling the product to school districts, and 80% of their time helping the school districts find grants or other funding.:)
But if it's something your school might be able to afford, I highly, highly, highly recommend the product. Of course, it's only for English, but your students will get a great start on learning to read English with this program.
/I made sure I had a copy and set of books/tapes before I left, even though I didn't have a kid yet at the time. //My daughter is almost ready to start! Yay! ///I miss working on a product in which I believe so deeply.
Re:Just off the cuff:
by
Canthros
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I'm thinking quite logically about this. Given the state of educational software, it's reasonable to conclude that this guy will either need to write his own or rely on software which is insufficient for his needs and which is likely to be less effective than traditional methods of instruction. Given the competence of the average software developer, the former seems an ill-conceived idea. It should be obvious from what I've said so far why I think the latter course a poor choice as well.
Consider further: a computer will cost more money, introduce wholly unnecessary complexity, be less reliable, and probably less effective than using traditional means to teach the exact same material, to some dubious, equivocable, and mostly non-existent gain. Teaching kids to read and write is a solved problem, and one in which re-inventing the wheel is unlikely to produce real benefit. There are workbooks and primers and what have you. It may not be as sexy or innovative as sitting a kid in front of a computer to learn their ABCs, but it does work.
Maybe, just maybe, the one who's not thinking about this rationally is you: why does a kindergartener need to use a computer?
-- Canthros
Re:You are hereby banned from slashdot.
by
ElectricRook
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Around here, technology is the answer to EVERYTHING.
I work in a high tech company, where the majority of the Black employees are natives of Africa (Ghana, Nigeria). Think they started with technology? One guy told me he did not even see a car until he was 16 years old. He was 24 at the time.
He speaks better English than most Americans of any race.
-- - High Tech workers, please say NO to Union Carpenters, their Union sees fit to control our compensation.
Slashdot Mirror
Something to keep lego's and lincoln logs out of the plebians' mouths...
Truthfully, I think that it would be better to let the kindergarteners play with blocks, color with crayons, and generally let them act like little kids. They'll have plenty of time in the coming years to learn all about computers, iPods, and cellphones. There are enough problems with people being addicted to their computers without getting the kids hooked at such a young age.
There are so many educational devices that do their specific job well, that a PC is just a wasteful box in a young class.
Limits on technology aren't so bad either, let them go outside and play games, socialize, and begin building personalities.
The poster RUNS a preschool. That is s?he is concerned with all aspects of a child's education. Since they are running a private one (and one with a nice web site), I would assume that they have loads of education on child development as well as how to teach. So, here you are trying to tell him how to run a pre-school (note: NOT a simple daycare). So, what experience do you have that you know so much about children pre-school AND you are also on a geek site?
Seriously, for the other posters (mgb68 and more to come), when somebody who is asking for help on something that they may not have loads of knowledge on, please do not put them down by telling them that they are wrong to explore options. It is damaging to this site, to the geek world, and the those that could use the help (and god knows that many in the world NEED help). I think that the director should be able to explore loads of good options. And yes, handling computers is now part of our society. Children will have to learn it.
For those of us with young children, I would bet that most if not all, have their children playing with the computers as well as playing on the jungle gym, the McyD's play ground, games, circle time, nap time, reading, etc. My daughter (and in about 2 years, my son) play with multiple educational packages on Linux. It is fun to watch her and she enjoys it.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Unless by "Mac" you're talking about System 7, I disagree completely. It seems to me that quite a lot of the so-called "educational software" advertised today completely sucks in comparison to what we had back circa 1990. Number Munchers, LOGO, Oregon Trail, Hypercard... maybe even Dino Park Tycoon... those were examples of good software for kids! If I were running a preschool I'd go dumpster-diving for that stuff rather than get something new, and it would have nothing to do with price.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
|Disclaimer| I used to work for the company which distributed and supported the following products. I no longer work for said company, but feel deeply about the high quality of the product |end Disclaimer|
It is called "The Waterford Early Reading Program" [although I believe they now have Math and Science as well, but haven't personally seen these newer products]. It is currently distributed by Pearson Digital Learning [It was called Electronic Education, a division of Addison Wesley Longman when I worked there]
Anyway, the idea is that for Level One, a set of one to three computers [depending on class size] is placed in a Kindergarten [or Pre-K] classroom. Each day the students spend 15 minutes on the computer. Much like many reading programs the program guides the student through the process of learning to read, [actually the first couple days are spent teaching the child to use the mouse] using songs and games. In this case, the instruction is backed by research done by the Waterford Institute and the Waterford School [a private school in Utah]. The software is able to keep track of lessons/concepts which the student has or hasn't mastered, and can keep giving lessons on the items the student still needs help with.
In addition to the 15 minutes on the computer, each student gets a set of videos [with videos from the program], a set of cd's [with music from the program of course], and books [can you guess? With stories from the program]. These are for the students to take home, in the hopes that they can get their family to read with them, or at least play the music/video's to enforce the learning.
After Level One, they have Level 2 [First Grade] and Level 3 [Second grade] to continue building on the lessons].
In my years of supporting the product, and spending time in the classrooms, I have to say that I really believe it was a great program. The kids absolutely LOVED it! If the computers were down, the teacher would tell the kids that I was there to fix the computers. Without fail, the entire class would cheer loudly! Of only one system was down, and I had to stop some kids from using the other working computers, they would plead with me not to make them get off the computers until I swore to them that they would not lose their turn for that day.
I even had one kid stand up, turn around, look at me and pee his pants! The teacher said that this was not uncommon. The kids were so worried about losing their turn at the program, that they didn't want to get up to go to the bathroom!
There is a downside to this wonderful system though. It is NOT cheap. I don't know what the prices are these days [when I worked there, Pentium 2's were hot stuff], and I don't know what kind of deals can be done with private [especially out of US] schools. Generally the system was sold with anywhere from 1 to 3 computers plus a printer, and the cost included student sets [books/vid/cd's] and support for three years.
Generally our sales force spent 20% of their time selling the product to school districts, and 80% of their time helping the school districts find grants or other funding.
But if it's something your school might be able to afford, I highly, highly, highly recommend the product. Of course, it's only for English, but your students will get a great start on learning to read English with this program.
Nothing to see here
I'm thinking quite logically about this. Given the state of educational software, it's reasonable to conclude that this guy will either need to write his own or rely on software which is insufficient for his needs and which is likely to be less effective than traditional methods of instruction. Given the competence of the average software developer, the former seems an ill-conceived idea. It should be obvious from what I've said so far why I think the latter course a poor choice as well.
Consider further: a computer will cost more money, introduce wholly unnecessary complexity, be less reliable, and probably less effective than using traditional means to teach the exact same material, to some dubious, equivocable, and mostly non-existent gain. Teaching kids to read and write is a solved problem, and one in which re-inventing the wheel is unlikely to produce real benefit. There are workbooks and primers and what have you. It may not be as sexy or innovative as sitting a kid in front of a computer to learn their ABCs, but it does work.
Maybe, just maybe, the one who's not thinking about this rationally is you: why does a kindergartener need to use a computer?
Canthros
I work in a high tech company, where the majority of the Black employees are natives of Africa (Ghana, Nigeria).
Think they started with technology? One guy told me he did not even see a car until he was 16 years old. He was 24 at the time.
He speaks better English than most Americans of any race.
- High Tech workers, please say NO to Union Carpenters, their Union sees fit to control our compensation.