Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Tips When Motivating Children to Love Education

Children at their earliest ages should learn and realize the importance of education to their lives. However, there are just some kids who try to resist the norm and insist on doing things their way. How could you motivate your children or teens to treat education as a necessary preparation for their future? Here are some practical and proven effective guidelines.

Teach the value of education early in a child’s life. Children are naturally curious and observant. They may be wondering why you love reading books or magazines. Tell them that they need to learn to read to be able to also share such enjoyment. It would help if you would tell your children on a daily basis how important getting a good education is in attaining goals and dreams in life.

Be creative when teaching children during their formative years. If you are not a teacher in profession, you could still strive to be an effective home tutor to your kids. You see, as a parent, you should also learn how to make your children enjoy learning and studying. You could impose play and fun activities at home to make children realize that learning is not as boring as they think.

Take your children to educational yet fun parks. Instead of taking them to the malls to stroll, why not take them to a museum, a science center, or a zoo for a change? When they get more curious about things, tell them they would know more if they would continue getting education. This strategy would certainly make them more motivated to learn and study.

Introduce the computer to children. Computers never fail to amaze people, especially young children. It seems that this is a computer generation. Of course, emphasize to your kids that they could not in any way exploit the potential of computers and the Internet without getting necessary education. In no time, you would hear them asking you how they could learn more. By that time, you should realize that the ball is in your hands.
Take your children to the streets where there are vagabonds and beggars. This may not sound very nice, but you could tell your children they could end up like those unfortunate people if they fail to get necessary education. You could surely instantly see the frights in their faces, for sure.

How about applying education or learning to daily activities? You could incorporate mathematics to daily tasks and situations. Their love for learning could start if you rely on them in doing specific tasks. Incorporate counting, reading, and writing on those simple tasks. For example, you take them to the market and make them buy certain items (like 5 apples, 10 oranges, and the likes). At the end of the day, you could see them get the thrill and satisfaction.

Enroll your children to the most reputable and effective schools. Traditionally, parents treat schooling of children as investments. If you want them to love education, make sure to place them into an environment that would foster comfort, fun, and learning at the same time. Do not hesitate because of high costs. Most of the time, the best and most effective schools call for premium in their quality of education. If it would make your children better individuals, why not spend for it?

Technology and Education

Technically, technology and education are two separate and different concepts. But they are often intertwined and united to complement each other. Technology involves different innovations to make lives better. Education is accumulation of knowledge and skills to make a difference. Technology would not be easily assimilated without education, and vice versa. These days, education systems are particularly more reliant on technology.

Technology has become an influential factor of education. These days, it is even regarded as highly important when it comes to facilitating learning. This is not very surprising. In the past, teaching methods involved overhead projectors and copiers. These days, the advent of computers makes possible lecturing with the aid of PowerPoint presentations. Computers are also becoming important tools that make possible every learning task in and out of the classroom.

Most students and teachers know how to operate computers. This makes online education more possible. Now, technology has put up virtual learning environments that aim to engage and educate students through distance learning. There is no more need to come to formal and traditional classes because teaching methods are already facilitated through the Internet.
Computers also aid teaching and learning methods. Aside from the online capability, computers make learning more enjoyable. It has been observed that more students enjoy learning sessions when they are using computers. The class need not be online. There are formal classes that make use of computers collectively. The multimedia is becoming very popular among students and teachers alike.

Assessment of most students could also be facilitated by technology, specifically computers. A classic example is the ARS or Audience Response System that enables immediate and quick feedback tests aside from interactive classroom discussions. Surveys and evaluations could also be made online for more convenience, accuracy, and confidentiality.

ICTs or information and communication technologies make more things happen. In definition, ICTs make up diverse tools and sets of resources that are principally aimed at communicating, creating, storing, disseminating, and managing information. Such technologies may include of course computers, broadcast technologies, telephony, and the Internet. Through the years, there has been a rising interest at how online media could bolster condition of education at all existing levels, in formal and even non-formal settings.

In the past ICTs have already been in use in aiding education. Older types of ICTs include television and radio. For more than 40 years, those media have effectively been used for distance and open learning. Special TV programs are even aimed at helping students learn more like those classic children’s shows like Sesame Street.

It should be noted that the use of different computer systems and the online media is still in its infancy stage especially in most developing countries. In most cases, use of new technologies in aiding education is hindered and limited due to infrastructure and availability issues. Many governments are starting to allocate significant budgets for integration of technology into education.

Technology is an effective aid to education. It is amusing how students these days could not imagine school without the use of the Internet. Back in the days, learning was only facilitated through manual materials like pens, papers, and blackboards. It is just overwhelming how times have changed. The future holds more promises. It is expected that education would further grow with the advent and introduction of more technologies.