Children are naturals when it comes to technology. They’re brilliant at using it. Some of them are better than many adults. I’m sure we’ve all marvelled at how the children we teach know exactly how to exit the software we’ve set up for them, open up Internet Explorer, find the CBeebies website and start blaring out the Bob the Builder theme tune. In my experience it’s either that, Ben 10 or Hannah Montana. They’re more than happy to show off these skills, usually when they shouldn’t. All this independence is very commendable, of course, but not so good if you need them to practise their matching skills or to identify phonemes. My colleagues and I must have spent hours over the years restarting software and redirecting children to tasks when they’ve ‘accidentally’ closed down the software.
I set out to find a solution to this, and to so many other, obvious problems when teaching using ICT in the Early Years. And so Lugo Learning was born. We needed a way of locking the software so the children couldn’t quit it, by mistake or on purpose! Also we wanted to direct them to a particular activity, so they couldn’t move on to another one that was either too easy for them or far beyond their capabilities. And that’s what we did.It’s why, whenever we demonstrate Bim! Bam! Boogaloo! in schools, teachers say to us “You’ve thought of everything!” and “It’s obvious it’s been designed by an Early Years teacher”. Teachers quickly see it’s ideal for 0-5s, because that’s exactly who it’s been designed for. Children are our fiercest critics, we always listen to what they have to say and we’re constantly trying to keep up with them!
Please get in touch to let us know what you’re doing with ICT in the Early Years.
