I’m a professional in edtech, and while I do love edtech in general, especially for effective teaching, I’m not yet a fan of it as a parent of a KINDERGARTENER.
I know this post title is a very combative general statement. But it brought you here, so I’ll explain. My ed-tech journey from a parental perspective is as follows. Per my kids’ schools, they’ve used:
Preschool: Procare (daycare/preschool communications app)
Preschool: Brightwheel (daycare/preschool communications and school check-in app)
Kindergarten: ClassDojo (communication app), iReady (online assessment for reading and math), Raz-Kids (online reading practice), See-Saw (submitting video assignments). I know these platforms are way more defined than this, but these descriptions are a reflection of how we’re specifically assigned to use them.
Communication apps are a YES for me
First things first. I appreciate and enjoy the communications apps where I can easily receive (and send!) messages and see pictures of my kiddos in school. These are edtech platforms I can get behind because they’re for parent-teacher-school communication. We’ve experienced 3 preschools by now, and the first one our eldest attended used email only. Receiving photos was infrequent (likely because it was so inefficient for the teacher), took up way too much email storage, and got mixed into the clutters of personal and work emails. We also had no direct way to contact the school besides by calling. So, truly, I have a deep appreciation for these communications apps, where I can directly message teachers. (And don’t worry. Clearly I’m a woman of many written words, but I don’t overuse that function.)
Photos are the best via apps
Procare and Brightwheel have both been easy to use and navigate. I will say, though, that I think teachers and schools don’t use all the features of the app. Maybe these are premium, paid features on the school’s end. Like Procare. We know from school admin that the function to pay for tuition via Procare is a more expensive subscription for the school to utilize. Besides that, I have a bone to pick with ClassDojo. I’m a parent. I will not upgrade my *school* comms app, and I don’t need the extra features — not now or ever. I don’t need the push notifications to upgrade. And in kindergarten, I don’t really receive too many photos of my own child anymore. We get the occasional group photos, which is completely okay. I’m sure the teachers have less capacity at this grade level (and beyond)!
Edtech in the hands of my children
Alright, so here’s where I feel more conflicted about edtech — when it’s in the hands of my own kindergartener.
It’s too much at this young age
I’m not even opposed to these platforms I’ve mentioned: iReady (though my qualm is that it feels like “busy work” type of learning), Raz-Kids, and SeeSaw. My key arguments against this are (1) it’s too many platforms, which makes for a fragmented experience and (2) this feels too early for edtech in his education. My son’s in kindergarten. He’s five. Can’t we start digital learning in school when our kids’ fingers are long enough to properly learn how to type on a keyboard? Are kids even motivated to learn to type anymore after they’ve been swiping and pressing keys with an index finger for years? (I’ve heard from teachers the answer is no.) Can’t they crawl before they walk? Walk before they run? I’m a proponent of more hands-on, pencil to paper, tactile skill development, and physical books for kids. Arguably, there’s a balance, and we can accommodate both types of learning. My type of balance is that we push out the use of Chromebooks and apps to first grade at the earliest.
Technology can still be a barrier for some
Another challenge of edtech I see is that there’s a barrier for non-English speaking parents. Vay and I are both children of immigrants. If we had to do this as kids, our parents would not have had (1) access and (2) the know-how to support us. When we first started logging in to all these platforms for homework, we wondered, “How will the immigrant parents utilize these? It must be difficult.” Surely, it was. That second week of school, during pickup and drop-off, I overheard several parents speaking with the teachers about the difficulties they’ve had just logging in. The teachers provided quick tutorials on the spot as they handed their phones over to them to review.
But I love our teachers and support them
As strongly as I feel about this, I still fully support our teachers and classrooms. We use the platforms to complete the assignments without complaint (barring this post, hah!). We don’t have to spend too much time on it, anyway. And as a family, we’re still reading books and flipping physical pages every night for bedtime stories. That’s how we’re keeping the balance for now. Edtech is so impactful, and the right tools really do provide an engaging, interactive learning experience for students. I’m a huge proponent of it. As a parent who still tries my best to minimize screen time in these early years, I’d love to see more hands-on, tactile learning in kindergarten.