innovative PK-2 teachers changing the future one classroom at a time
iKinder, Do You?
  • Home
  • Resources
    • App Reviews
    • Lessons
    • Links and Readings
  • Blog
  • Presentations
    • Calendar of Events
    • 2016 ISTE Denver
    • 2016 CKA
    • 2015 Fall CUE
    • 2014 CKA
    • 2013 Oct Fall CUE
    • 2013 Sept NBCUE-Marin
    • 2013 Feb NL workshop
  • News
  • About Us

I Was Skeptical

2/4/2013

1 Comment

 
Picture
by Martha McCoy
iPads in Kindergarten didn't make any sense to me when I first heard I would be teaching kindergarten in a pilot program that provided one iPad per student.  It seemed like a misuse of valuable resources and I thought using iPads would deprive kindergartners of 'real' play-based learning. I was worried about too much screen time and lack of social interaction if kids were 'plugged in' so young.  Would using iPads inhibit their communication skills? What about their writing skills? Would they just 'play games' and not really learn anything?  What about the rest of our school? 
It didn't take long before I announced to the world that 'Every student should have access to an iPad!' The portable touch screen technology makes learning accessible to everyone, irregardless of literacy skills, language and background.  I watched students listen to and interact with digital stories, play phonics games, create stories, practice their letters over and over, and do puzzles on their iPads with just two days of instruction. This was impressive but what was even more remarkable was that students showed great persistence and ingenuity in figuring out the apps.  They were undaunted when faced with failure! They were willing to take risks, experiment, and use their prior knowledge independently.  While using iPads, the ususal subjective judgement or praise by the teacher about a student's failure or success was nonexistent. I was watching children's brains in action. I witnessed a high level of motivation and problem solving as children helped each other and shared their work...and this was just the beginning.
DOLLARS WELL SPENT
Think about it. People do not question investing large sums of money in high school intervention programs to 'close the achievement gap'.  But Kindergarten?  
The truth is you get a lot more BANG for the BUCK if you intervene early by building English vocabulary, math and literacy skills before the age of 5.

1 Comment
TS Massage Lexington-Fayette link
3/1/2025 02:01:23 am

I agree early intervention is important for building a strong foundation.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Authors

    Our bloggers include:
    Kim Floyd, NVUSD
    Martha McCoy, Retired
    Kathy Moorehead, HMSD
    Pamela Redmond, TUC
    Dina Solberg, SPHDS
    And more to come...

    Categories

    All
    Cross-age Collab.
    Digital Literacy
    Getting Started
    Kim Floyd
    Martha Mccoy
    Portfolios

    Archives

    April 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    February 2013

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Cross-age Collab.
    Digital Literacy
    Getting Started
    Kim Floyd
    Martha Mccoy
    Portfolios

Portions not contributed by visitors are © 2013 RedTEC, LLC
Picture
2011 - Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.