Kindergarten is a time for learning and exploring the world around us. Children in the 5 to 6 age range have learned important skills like walking and talking and now they want to know WHY? Why is the sky blue? Why are butterflies hard to catch? We want to answer all of these why questions while still giving them advantages in life. Our world is quickly becoming all online. There is a delicate balance to making sure our little ones are still learning, asking all of those why questions, and developing those critical thinking skills. Research shows that students as young as Kindergarten need to know simple technology skills, and most have those prior to beginning Kindergarten. But what we will be doing in class to facilitate these skills is listed below:
- The names for the parts of a computer
- How to exit from a window
- How to move a mouse accurately
- How to hold the mouse still when clicking
- How to click, double click and drag
- How to press a key lightly so only one letter/digit is entered
- How to log in/log off
- How to turn on/off the computer safely
- How to double click a shortcut icon
- Digital Citizenship
When we have all mastered these skills, we will add more learning. But rest assured that this is only a small part of our learning curriculum and we will be doing lots of hands- on explorations.
As referenced in this article, The effects of computers on kindergarten children's social skills, results indicated that a positive effect of having computers in the classroom is that children’s social skills in kindergarten when using a computer depend
on the level of proficiency in using that computer. This is one reason we will be teaching technology and how to use it in our classroom.
