Eureka! I’ve got it

All to often I wish that was my response when doing something new but it seems the more I know the less I know.

For me this year has been about getting technology into children’s hands and seeing what they can do with it.  Like all areas of education different supports are needed for different students.  I find if I teach them one skill at a time (especially in smaller groups) and they have an interest in learning they can do it! 

So here are my 3 simple tips for working with small children and technology.

1)   Have one of the devices they are working on in your hands too, so you can model what they are doing and truly take it step by step rather than trying to work from memory or there screen.

2)   Start slow.  Decide what your goal is and just do that one part.  Then get them to an activity they enjoy so they are motivated to commit that step to memory. So next time you can build off of it.

3)   Have a place to keep all of their codes or passwords or any of those things so that they can access that information on their own.  I use color coded cards that are removable and can go with them where ever they are working.  I find there are to many codes and passwords for us to expect them to remember them all!  Then practice over and over again so the next time it is a little faster and a little smoother. 

Bouns* never underestimate what they can do.  I thought “control, alt, delete” would be to much for my kindergarten fingers but I have even trained them to do it!  After all logging on is the first step.

This is truly what come to mind for me with someone says Eureeka!