Kids Learn Better with Interactive Technology

Kids Learn Better with Interactive Technology

Preschoolers can learn a lot from educational films, but very young children learn better with the help of interactive programs (for example, video chats and touch mobile applications) than from television and video clips that do not require feedback. This conclusion was reached by the authors of a new article, which also notes that since the conditions that affect learning with interactive programs are not yet known, not all of them are able to improve learning, and not all children learn the material the same way.

''Interactive programs for children,,

This article was published in the journal Child Development Perspectives, published by the Research Society for Child Development, and provides a brief overview of the study of this issue by associate professor of human development and family studies at the University of Wisconsin University in Madison, Heather Kirkorian.

According to Kirkorian, “researchers are just starting to address the issue of educating children through interactive programs , however, it seems that thanks to the feedback, the kids manage to connect what they see on the screen with their own real experience. However, some types of interactivity are more effective than others, and the optimal learning environment may vary significantly for each individual child. "

In his article, Kirkorian summarizes and analyzes the results of a study on the teaching of toddlers using digital multimedia, the main purpose of which was to find out how so young children understand what they see on the screen. She also examines the question of how much mental stress and the complexity of tasks performed by children as they view or interact with the program changes the effectiveness of this program for early learning and development.

As we already know, children make mental efforts when they watch TV, and are able to learn from high-quality educational videos. However, learning by video differs from cognition directly from my own experience, and there is an opinion that it is difficult for children to learn up to 2–3 years old using non-interactive programs. Older preschoolers also had difficulty using media programs when it came to more complex tasks. Perhaps the reason for this is the two-dimensionality of the video clips. In addition, the video does not have many important educational aspects; for example, people and characters on the screen cannot respond to student facial expressions or answer their questions.

Do interactive programs help or hinder learning? Kirkorian concluded that the work with interactive video may require the costs used to lshih mental effort, because children need to make a decision and perform a certain action. However, interactive tools can facilitate learning through a sense of participation, because the student feels involved in the process, receiving an individual reaction from the program or helping to find the necessary information on the screen. Scientists found that the kids studied on the basis of video chats, as well as computer games and sensory applications, while the effectiveness of the method was determined by how much the interactive component managed to draw their attention to the relevant information.

Moreover, according to a study by Kirkorian, the degree of growth in the effectiveness of training using sensory programs varied significantly. However, the reasons for this difference are still unknown - it may be associated with an age-related change in learning strategies or various mental efforts of children. In addition, this may be due to the inability of some children (especially boys and very young children) to suppress their behavioral impulses: kids who cannot resist the urge to touch the screen learn better with non-interactive programs than with games and applications that require certain screen manipulations.

“Among other things, the degree of learning of young children using interactive programs depends on the coincidence of the requirements of a specific task and the mental resources of each specific child ,” says Kirkorian. - "For example, an application that calls attention to important information and gives an explanation, it may be more useful than one that distracts or provide clarification. However, this is true only in cases where interaction with the screen does not cause additional mental stress. When studying especially difficult or completely new questions, it may be easier for children to watch non-interactive videos than to work with interactive programs, at least in the short term . ”