Developmentally Appropriate Ways To Use iPads With Kindergartners

The way technology has taken hold of our lives is nothing short of terrorism, I say that because we are almost held hostage by technology.

As adults we know about the shortcomings of technology and the drawbacks, and then it becomes important that we help kids understand the real use of technology and keep them away from its abuse. iPads are the latest in line of gadgets to enter classrooms. At Podar Jumbo Kids we introduced iPads to our senior kindergarteners with a difference; we made the iPad another medium of learning. Here is how we made the ipad the new revolution in kindergarten that is developmentally appropriate. We did two projects with our 4 and 5 year olds, given below is the documentation of our first project VAN GOGHSUNFLOWERS, you can view a full video on this project below.

Children are learning about flowers and colour-mixing by looking at Van Gogh’s painting of a sunflower on their iPads. Using applications such as iDraw and iPaint, they draw their own sunflowers, and cheer as an expert animator makes their sunflowers sway. Teachers then hand the children library books on flowers, and continue different exercises because an iPad should not be the only learning tool. It should be one of many varied tools. It should not replace teachers and textbooks. Applications which only elicit a reaction from the children should be avoided, and those that require a child to think should be encouraged.

Our second iPad project was on MAHATMA GANDHI and we used the education philosophy of 3 H (head-heart-hand). Given below are the different activities that the kids experienced during the project, you can also view a full video of the project below.

It is important that iPads are used not as a reactive gadget on which children play games but more of a responsive learning tool that helps kids think, relate, do and keeps the engagement between the child and the iPad a two way process rather than a one way reactive process. Only then will we have made a developmentally appropriate use of iPads in kindergarten.