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Preparing Your Child For The Connected World

December 7, 2018

December 7, 2018

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At present, the US, the UK, and many other countries are experiencing a shift in society. Everything is moving to online mediums, and we are embracing other technological mediums. People are becoming very much technology dependent, and if you fail to embrace the internet and its possibilities then you will simply fall behind. This not only relates to work benefits but everyday life as well.

This also means that children are growing up in a day and age whereby becoming accustomed to computers is considered important.

According to a new study from the Pew Research Center, “34 percent of African-American teens report going online ‘almost constantly’…” but 66 percent are not.

Society is developing into a connected world, and as a parent, you need to make sure that your children are prepared to be a part of this. But how do you make sure that they are ready?

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There are several different methods that you can implement in order to give your child the best chance of becoming ingrained into the connected world. When it comes to small children this task is made a little bit more difficult. Nevertheless, the earlier children learn, the better it is because they absorb information easier. So how do you get around this issue?

Determine the digital skills you are going to need to teach your children

The first thing you need to do is determine the different digital skills that are important when teaching your children about using computers and technology. This can be split up into eight sections: their digital rights, digital literacy, digital communication, digital emotional intelligence, digital security, digital safety, digital use, and digital identity. This may seem like a broad range of topics but the online world is expansive and it has become ingrained in our lives in so many different ways. Therefore, ensuring your child knows about everything from managing risks online to building good and empathetic relationships is important.

Let them watch you navigate the Internet

When you are helping your child do his or her homework or trying to teach them something important, even if you just need to show a short demonstration video, you should do so via the computer. Instead of having the video ready and waiting on the computer screen, you should leave the screen on desktop view. You should then proceed to find the video, via YouTube, Google, or whatever means relevant, in front of the children. After you do this several times, the process of finding things online will soon become ingrained in their mind and so they will be able to do this online without even thinking about it. Indirect learning tends to work a lot better for most children instead of merely handing them a set of instructions.

Let playtime consist of online games

When you have play time, you should let the children play online games, in fact, you should even try to incorporate these into their study time and learning. You won’t want your child to be on games 24/7, of course, which is why you should monitor iPhone activity with Family Orbit app. There are many games which are relevant. Of course, you have the educational games which should certainly be utilised. Nevertheless, you also have a wealth of cartoon based games. These are not directly educational; however, they can still help children to develop key skill areas. The reason why you should let your class play on the games like this is that they are the best way to let them get to grips with a computer and how it operates. They will learn how to use a mouse and how to use the keyboard, you will also find that their hand-eye coordination and concentration improves as well. There is no better way to learn than through trial and error and so let the children get to grips with using a computer in their own space and their own time. Before you know it all of your class will be tech savvy. Plus, we all learn more effectively when we are having fun, right?

So there you have it: some of the steps that you can take to prepare your child for the online world. If you follow the information that has been presented above, you can go a long way to making sure that your little one is prepared for the digital environment that we live in today. Whether we like it or not, computers are here to stay, and the things we can do online are advancing all of the time, so it is vital to make sure that your child does not get left behind.

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