Technology being the enemy of an outdoor play!
Recently over Christmas
my brother got a new phone and an Xbox, I was concerned as I noticed
that because of these new gadgets he got that he was spending a large
amount of time playing with these and he was not engaging as much
with the family or friends or doing social activities. After thinking
about this I found a blog online talking about whether technology is
the enemy of an outdoor childhood. This blog talks about childhood
being the time where we learn best about the world and develop in all
areas, meaning children need to be engaged with the world,
socialising and gaining first hand experiences to gain new knowledge
and develop skills to reach full potential. As new gadgets are being
brought in to young children’s lives it has been seen that they
spend very little time doing activities that help with this.
Technology is helping lead to childhood obesity as children are not
using their gross motor skills by being out in the physical world as
much as they should be, socialising and learning with others. It is
seen that technology is very god for helping children’s problem
solving and challenging them to use their thinking skills. I believe
that these gadgets can be used to give children educational
experiences such as Apps to help maths or English development. So
these gadgets can be seen to be good for children but I think that
they should be given the correct amount of time to use gadgets and
still be provided with stimulating social and physical activities
within the environment as this will help with their development and
also lower the risk of obesity. By making it aware that too much time
spent using gadgets can be potentially harmful to children’s
health then it can be made possible to provide them with the
appropriate stimulation to learn new skills and gain new knowledge.
Technology being the enemy of an outdoor childhood [Online] Available at:http://rethinkingchildhood.com/2013/10/23/technology-outdoor-childhood/[Accessed 14th January 2014]
Technology being the enemy of an outdoor childhood [Online] Available at:http://rethinkingchildhood.com/2013/10/23/technology-outdoor-childhood/[Accessed 14th January 2014]
Excellent post, thought provoking and topical. I would suggest that we can combine the two if we can't split them. Can we for example take the tech outside? Can we use it to get creative outdoors, set challenges with it that encourage physical activity?
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