Technology
The technology demands of remote learning require us to become familiar with different platforms and tools, as well as spend a lot more time in front of screens. How do we make decisions around how much screen time is appropriate? This page provides a multitude of perspectives and suggested activities for whatever level of engagement you deem suitable for you and the young children in your life. Go back and forth between screen time and non-screen time to give everyone's bodies and brains a break!
To Tech or Not to Tech? What is Developmentally Appropriate?
The Institute of Educational Sciences provides a guide for using technology and media with young children in developmentally appropriate way.
The USA Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology outlines four guiding principles for using technology effectively with young children.
The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) published an article on the appropriate use of technology with young learners in 2017. It is still relevant and can help teachers and parents adjust their expectations for children’s increased screen use during remote learning.
Education for young children is challenging for teachers and families struggling to connect. This resource provides some key principles of early childhood learning that can help shape our interactions and provide support to young children.
Screen-Free Activities
This site boasts 1 Million Screen-Free Activities you can use to bring learning and down time away from the screen and into the physical world.
Smart Social sorts their recommendations for 100+ Offline Activities to Reduce Screen Time by category (Sports, Crafts, Music, etc.) and provides links to different activities under each heading. Some of these links require signup or purchase of products, but many ideas can be utilized to create your own tools at home.
Tinkergarten provides weekly outdoor activities for families and directs users to a Facebook community group for teaching and learning with young children in an outdoor setting.
Limit Screen Time
American Academy of Pediatrics Resource for creating a Family Media Plan to help keep track of screen time consumption.
The research article Media and Young Minds supports the limitation of screen time for young children’s healthy brain development.
The importance of Brain Breaks is highlighted in this resource. The website also offers some activity ideas for students to do between screen activities.
Balance Screen Time
The Conversation details some tips for how to use screen time effectively with children, which includes: Selecting quality educational programs; Engaging with screens together; Using screens for human connection; Balancing screen and screen-free activities; and, Leading by example.
Here are five suggestions for making the most out of video chatting with young children. Sharing the experience makes it more meaningful.
The NAEYC's position statement regarding technology and young children can be used by parents and early childhood educators to better understand the research-based recommendations for digital media engagement and developmentally appropriate practices for teaching and learning with young children.
Technology Based Resources
NAEYC’s helpful tips on how to create videos. This is a helpful teacher and parent resource for teaching and learning with young children.
Free Education Tools and Technology for learning. These resources are searchable by grade level, content standards, accessibility, availability, and more! Customize your filters to find the tools that will work best for your families.
Tech For Learners is a searchable online directory of technological resources for teaching and learning using a web-based platform.
Get creative at home with ideas from Crayola’s Create-To-Learn Family ProjectsTM website. These resources are available for free and include downloadable hard copies, video tutorials, and discussion boards for a shared experience.
UNESCO Distance Learning Solutions provides direct links to educational applications, platforms and resources that can be used to promote student learning and social support (care and interaction) for parents, teachers, schools and school administrators. Most resources are free and accessible in multiple languages.
GoNoodle is a motivating digital platform that can be accessed on a computer or a mobile device. It provides educational games and music videos that get young children moving and motivated.
This Quartz article gives suggestions for appropriate screen-based educational activities as well as advice for parents to help children adjust to learning at home.
Digital Promise provides a list of resources for supporting learners with disabilities. It allows the user to browse, search filtered content, or search for specific key words and phrases.
Technology Supports
Google Chrome Web Cleaner Extension is a filter that cleans the web browser and blocks unwanted content. Its settings can be customized to the user's preference.
Tom’s Guide to the best Ad Blockers discusses the many Ad Blockers available on web browsers and weighs the pros and cons of each. These extensions help clean up websites and prevent advertisements from being visually distracting to the user.