Thoughts about Digital Technology?

We are always thinking about the learning of our children often curious about the different outcomes of the use of technology. We often forget that even just the presence of digital technology in a classroom or at home can be enough for children to learn. The time spent with digital technology encourages children to learn and understand from the different applications they use (Courage, Troseth, 2016). Educators, as well as parents, have doubts about the integration of technology into their child's curriculum. As an educator, we feel the need to plan activities that we believe are seen as hands-on learning experiences. When using technology it is specifically catered towards the activity (Shifflet, Toledo & Mattoon, 2012). The time that children spend using technology has rapidly increased with the development of multiple new and accessible forms of technology (Hosokawa & Katsura, 2018). Children are able to access technology as they please which leads us to realize that they are able to navigate the technology better than we can (Shifflet, Toledo & Mattoon, 2012). There has been an evident increase in the use of digital technology worldwide. As technology has been displayed within school settings, the use for elementary schoolers has increased to over an hour per day, over 15% of the children are using technology longer than an hour (Hosokawa & Katsura, 2018). Even with the increase of technology children are able to distinguish the difference between the real world and a virtual world. Children still need the experiences of real-life activities but there are multiple ways to infuse technology with real-life activities (Shifflet, Toledo & Mattoon, 2012). Technology brings children together allowing them to engage in social interactions with their peers and family members. The overuse of technology, however, can be very risky as it can cause negative mental health outcomes such as depression, isolation, etc.