New ways of interacting

Another school year is just beginning. This year for the first time since 1995 we haven’t had a ‘back to school’ routine happening in our house at the end of January. While I wont be seeing anyone off to school this week, last week I still found myself holding my breathe when my youngest started school half a world away in Turin in northern Italy. Not only is she on the other side of the world, she is coping with school and learning in a language she barely knows and with coming and going in the snow and cold. What ever her motivation, she has spread her wings and this will no doubt be a year of amazing experiences.

The world is a much smaller place than it was when I was her age. Technology allows us to keep in touch with ease, to talk to her and even see the world she sees via Skype, email, FaceBook, Photo Bucket and a whole host of others services so familiar to our children born squarely in the land of Digital Natives. I am not expecting to find a hand written letter in the mail any time this year…………..

Having recently become the owner of an iPad (something that I hope my children wont ‘out know’ me on, at least for a little while), I have been discovering all manner of new ways to become immersed in a digital world. The array of apps is quite astounding and amongst the frivolous are some great opportunities, particularly for young learners. But how do you identify the good amongst the less good?

Some searching turned up Planet App: Kid’s Book apps are everywhere. But are they any good? . This article suggests some possible criteria for selecting picture book apps and includes some pointers which look useful. It is worth a look if you have young children and are interested in ways smart technology can provide opportunities for parent child interaction and immersion in literature.

Over the past few year I have observed young children happily occupying themselves with their parent’s Smart Phone while the adults talked during consultations. One 4 year old boy I met a couple of years ago stands out in my memory. He was busy typing and sending emails to his grandmother while we talked, checking on spelling now and then and contributing to our conversation as well. Up to that point I had been impressed by my young niece who had inadvertently phoned me while her mother was driving…….

Clearly I am a bit of a late comer to the world where there is an app for just about anything you can think of. I knew this for sure this morning when I came across an article titled  Preschoolers better at navigating iPhone than tying their shoes.

That made me think. Maybe we need an app for learning to tie shoe laces............