It also found that most parents did so to cajole and pacify children affecting language development.
A recent study by Early Childhood Association, Delhi, found that 78 per cent of parents use mobiles to keep children busy while waiting for a doctor's appointment or at the airport. It also found that most parents did so to cajole and pacify children affecting language development.
Gadget-free Sunday
Delhi Public School Bopal observes a gadget-free Sunday. This merely works on trust among parents and creating awareness regularly. The school sends messages such as "Let cell phones not replace your family time. Let us practice gadget-free Sunday. We seek your ardent participation and cooperation. Let technology not surpass our human interactions. Give the people in your life the gift of your presence by putting down your mobile device." Says Surender Sachdeva, Principal, DPS Bopal, "While smartphones are banned in our school, we cannot control children when they are home. Hence, we have started to observe a gadget-free Sunday."
No internet for projects
Anand Niketan, Shilaj, does not have a school WhatsApp group nor do they encourage children to search the internet for research for their projects. They have an app, which is a one-way communication, to share information or directives by the schools to the parents.
"We believe in the personal relationship between a teacher and a parent, hence, we do not have a two-way communication through the internet. We also have Do-It-Yourself projects where students are not encouraged to do copy-paste from the internet. While they can take some information from the internet, the project cannot be solely from the internet. The same is rejected if found so," says Lamiya Shums, Director, Anand Niketan school, Shilaj.
CCTVs at home?
Manan Choksi, Managing Director, Udgam School for Children, said, "For younger children, we have a mutual understanding with the parents as we have warned the students till Class 4 to restrict engagement with phones, tablets and even the television. We have told the students that we have installed CCTV cameras in their houses, and to warn them, have also shown some footage of their classes when they misbehave. So they fear being caught. Similarly, if our students do spend extra time on a device on a Sunday, parents tend to inform us and we pull up the children when they come to school."
At JG International school, every week, one class is dedicated on 'How to use the internet responsibly' where students and teachers debate and discuss technology.
Interestingly, Nashy Chauhan, Director of Anand Niketan School in Satellite, believes that "we need technology and cannot avoid it." However, she also feels that there has to be a limit for everything. The school has banned presentations made using technology. "If the students get everything from technology, their brains will stop working. We also have experts from the Cybercrime Cell talking to us regularly on the ills of the internet," said Chauhan.
Schools take both sides
While teachers decry children getting exposed to gadgets too early in life, schools, often do the opposite. There is a list of schools which have embraced technology in a big way. The Priyadarshini School in Pune uses the Virtual Reality (VR) device for its Class 4th to 10th students to study subjects like Science, History, Geography, and Geometry. Rajendra Singh, CEO, Priyadarshini School, said, "During VR learning, students wear the VR headset on their eyes and scroll through different lessons... The lessons are provided in an animation form. Imagine how different it will be learning about the digestive system via VR as compared to the blackboard or a simple text book. The VR technology is in demand because of which we thought of using it for learning purpose."
The Podar International School started teaching students via tablets around 2011 and later shifted to a complete digital learning in 2015-2016 with e-textbooks, e-workbooks, e-notes. Vandana Lulla, Director, Podar International School, said, "We encourage our students from Class 3 to 12 to use different applications to help them clear their concepts."
A HEALTHY CHILDHOOD
From istalling CCTVs at home in order to monitor kids to observing ‘gadget-free’ Sundays, schools are doing everything they can in order to strike a balance between technology and a healthy childhood
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