Can digital methods help educators identify and anticipate a child’s learning needs?
Digital services can be used more effectively to eradicate loneliness and bullying from children’s worlds and to hear children’s customer perspectives. Digital tools can act as a tool for the operational management of early childhood education staff, in assessing quality, and in supporting children’s growth, creating the joy of learning, identifying their own strengths, and supporting development in the best possible way.
Digital methods are making headlines, and there is currently a critical debate about children’s use of smart devices in particular. At the same time, it is clear that our society is becoming digital and children must acquire skills that help them navigate new arenas. Children learn a significant part of their knowledge and skills through various media. Digitality offers versatile solutions for the field of teaching and education, which at best enable children to have more equal starting points in life.
By utilizing digital solutions, children can participate more actively in building their own everyday lives.
A major study published by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare last year reveals the effects of a child’s family background on adulthood: the education and income level of the parents still affect how the child copes in life. This is a major challenge. The study’s press release states that “a child growing up in a welfare state should have the opportunity for a happy childhood and equal starting points for a good life later, regardless of the parents’ background. This requires services that identify factors that endanger the child’s development and that are able to support the child’s well-being in a family-oriented manner.” By utilizing digital solutions, children can participate more actively in building their own daily lives , which increases their opportunities to influence matters that affect them. This strengthens each child’s sense of significance.
VTT’s research considers how, for example, libraries and schools create equality in the use of digital services: regardless of age, gender, place of residence or status, citizens are in a fairly equal position in the digital world. However, digital services must be functional, profitable and, above all, meet the needs of the target group. In my vision, the potential of digital services is utilized more effectively to eradicate loneliness and bullying from children’s world, to support play and to enable every child to have safe experiences of interacting with friends. I am particularly excited by the potential of electronic services for hearing children’s customer perspectives and self-assessment. Children’s customer experiences of early childhood education have not been studied much, although it would be of paramount importance for the development of the service to study what real customers think. We are going to map these possibilities together with RALLA.
Digitality helps educators to understand and anticipate a child’s learning needs and thus support the child’s development in the best possible way. When learning methods meet the child’s needs, they can experience positive interaction and reciprocity and discover his own strengths and the joy of learning. At his best, digital methods also fuel creativity, which in turn increases children’s opportunities to produce their own culture, for example by creating music and films.
Digital services streamline the everyday lives of children, parents and daycare centers
Early childhood education staff can collaborate with the home and also promote pedagogical documentation with various digital solutions. This gives the parties a clear overview, the opportunity to anticipate everyday life, and plan and support pedagogical work according to the child’s needs.
Education and culture are increasingly important in our society as builders of the future. The changing needs of children and families are constantly challenging the early childhood education sector to think in new ways. Digitalization, harnessed with professional expertise, brings many solutions to this.
I am very excited about this opportunity to join RALLA’s journey to help adults working with children and young people succeed in their own educational and training goals. We believe that good everyday practices are built in interaction based on high-quality research data, towards the individual goals of the child or the common goals of a group of children. We ensure that the goal is achieved with research-based tools, developing staff skills and strengthening the internal operating culture.
Tiina Lämsä
Links:
Follow
Share
