Last week I discussed how technology can be a good thing when the balance is right. Unfortunately, technology addiction is very common among young children. The trick is to have firm guidelines for how much time can be dedicated to technology use. I certainly wouldn’t ban it altogether.
Technology has such a legitimate upside which cannot be dismissed:
Pupils at primary schools who use educational apps on smart-phones and tablets are performing better in their lessons, a new report showed has revealed.
The study reveals that forty per cent of parents who download educational apps say their child’s academic performance has improved as a result.
But the research shows that not only are they helping to raise academic attainment, educational apps are also helping children aged between 5 and 11 every day, inside the classroom.
The study, commissioned by Encyclopaedia Britannica, shows the vast majority of parents who have downloaded an app claim they have helped their child with school work and projects, while more than half of parents with smart devices actively encourage their child to download apps for exam revision, homework and learning about new topics.
The report also reveals that families with access to mobile devices are fully engaged with educational apps as learning aids, with the average smartphone-owning family downloading more than four since purchasing their device.
The findings comes as two thirds of parents with smart devices are calling for more educational apps to be developed, saying they encourage independent learning and that children prefer to use them compared to other learning aids.
Ian Grant, Managing Director of Encyclopaedia Britannica UK, said: ‘It’s great that families are fully embracing new technologies when it comes to their childrens education and that they’re starting to see tangible benefits to academic attainment, both in and out of the classroom.’
Sue Atkins, Author of Raising Happy Children for Dummies and parenting blogger, said: ‘In a busy, hectic, stress-filled world of trying to get children interested in learning and being curious about the world, we need to engage them in new ways, and what better way than to download smartphone apps.
‘As a parent myself, I welcome this brilliant new way to help my daughter with her revision.’
Research was carried out online by PCP among 510 UK parents of children aged 5 – 11 with access to at least one smart device, in March 2011.
Tags: App, Apps, Children, Computers, Education, Family, i-Phone, iPad, iPhone, Mobile Phones, Parenting, technology
Topical Teaching 
May 24, 2011 at 7:09 am |
It is a nice post. Thank you for sharing such a useful information.
Kids have their own way of understanding the things and usually they don’t like it to be a boring stuff. They want fun in everything. But parents want their kids to learn something from everything. So these educational apps suffice all these wants of the parents.
October 6, 2011 at 1:37 am |
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