E-learning: Is it a classroom substitute?

As parents of young children, we are always on the lookout for interesting ways to teach our children new concepts in language or math. It is no surprise that e-learning forms a significant part in the teaching process at most homes. Just searching for terms like “e-learning” and “children” on the Internet gives a host of options to choose from, and parents can pick any of these kids games or educational websites as fun ways to teach children.

E-learning for kids can be a great way of finding new information, and forms a great addition for what is learnt at school. But it can never be a complete substitute for learning in a classroom, as there are so many other aspects such as personal interactions with a teacher and with a peer group that cannot be a part of such an experience. With the abundance of educational websites and e-learning tools such as tablets and laptops being easily accessible to children, there is a chance that the child may feel it is better than a classroom in some ways. It is up to us as parents to make them understand that it is necessary to limit time spent on gadgets, and to get the benefits of other sources of education too.

For younger children, parents can find kids learning websites that have learning games related to the child’s school curriculum. As children get more comfortable with using gadgets themselves they may know to look around and find interesting websites themselves. Especially in the case of playing games on gadgets like the iPad or a smartphone, this learning curve is very short and parents can take advantage of this by loading a lot of educational games on these gadgets.

A related aspect of children spending time on online learning is to do with some amount of parental control and policing that is always necessary, and to not leave them completely unsupervised, especially in the case of younger children. Where older children are concerned, some parental control tools might be required.

It is important that we keep children in touch with conventional methods of learning by using physical tools and not just online ones. One great way of introducing children to educational games is teaching them to use the abacus for math learning. Please see our website for more details: http://www.aloha-usa.com