Many parents of all walks of life grapple with the usage of electronics and their children. Do we let them watch tv or play on that computer? Is it better to cut back to a very limited schedule or let the child determine the hours? Should we turn it all off? Is an online classroom effective? Are apps truly educational?

I know that for our family the question of how much iPad and computer usage is appropriate can be a point of contention. Games like Minecraft are excellent at giving a child the ability to be truly imaginative, to create something out of nothing… fine motor skills are tested as are problem solving skills, memorization, math… even some science comes into play. BUT on the other side of that, there is the unwavering motivation to play Minecraft, talk about Minecraft, share information ABOUT Minecraft (even if  you really don’t want to know it in the first place). In short, obsession…

With schools constantly moving more into technology (our niece gets her own iPad at one point in their school system) and away from some of the more dated skills (I am very sad to see that handwriting is being phased out… definitely something I want my kids to learn… there is beauty in letters, in their form and shape… and I find that words can look their most beautiful in handwriting done well) the question remains with the parent… where do you cut off the electronics?

I know that as a homeschooling parent life is much easier with the internet… with all this information at my fingertips, the ability to contact and communicate with other families all over the world… we search for dinosaurs, watch relevant youTube videos, find craft ideas… all using the internet. But at the same time, it becomes a distraction… the need to game with our boys is easily an obsession. Yet the benefits are there… I have never seen boys more willing to work on reading as when they realized how it opened up options and abilities in regards to these games. Apps are coming out every day (and going on sale or free often) that are meant to engage children of all age ranges.

I read an article recently on  the site Design Mind that focuses on using online media to engage students and teachers in a whole new way. One of the ideas brought up in this article that struck a cord with me is the idea of no WRONG answers. Or at the very least no absolute consequences to getting something wrong right off the bat. Red pen is outlawed in our home at this point. It is so difficult to watch your then 7 year old son in tears because a math page is not perfect instead of celebrating that so many were correct. It is explained as follows:

As he noted in his TEDGlobal talk, Schocken believes that the traditional grading system is “degrading”—and he’d rather talk about a more positive approach to teaching that he calls “upgrading.” This means rejecting the traditional focus on correct answers. Instead, Schocken thinks we should encourage mistakes. In his app-based learning environments, if you give the wrong answer, nothing horrible happens. “We never say ‘incorrect,’ ‘wrong,’ and so on. Instead, when students give answers that aren’t the right ones, we use a non-verbal and neutral visual gesture, like vibrating the image a little,” Schocken said. This implies something like “nice try, keep trying, I’m waiting patiently, take your time.” And, after two wrong answers are entered in a row, the program gives a tip leading to the correct direction.

Now I am not suggesting we move everything to short youTube sized learning packets but there is a lot to be said about making our learning current with our student’s interests… Sometimes Minecraft IS the best way to show that math equation, sometimes when something is wrong we need a nudge not a great big red X.

I would love to hear other’s opinions on the article “The End of Education As We Know It”… you can find it HERE. I think this is a marvelous technique specifically for elementary students… the combining of game and gentle nudges to the right direction, I do agree with comments on that page, that as we grow we do need to understand what incorrect or wrong means. Not every job is going to nudge you… adversity is relevant but so is getting the basics into practice with the least resistance. Where we have an amazing foundation the can be great growth. Perhaps these learning games and methods could be key to that! What do you think?