One of the site we use most for resources in the world of educational technology is the official page of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, which is ‘an independent research and innovation lab that focuses on the challenges of educating children in a rapidly changing media landscape’. Some say Joan Ganz Cooney and her colleagues began the edu-tech revolution with their creation of Sesame Street in 1966, which makes the Cooney Center a veritable mecca of information.
Below you’ll find an excerpt from a recent blog post that includes a great story about how one father used what his kids learned gaming to encourage them to take it outside the screen. Read the post in its entirety here.
“We’re thrilled to share Jordan Shapiro’s account of a recent road trip to Niagara Falls with his sons. Despite a relaxed screen time policy while on the road, the boys find that having uninterrupted time with Dad is more fun as they create their own adventures together.
My boys (7 and 10 years old) are not usually allowed to use electronics in the car. To them, I’m sure it seems like a weird, arbitrary restriction. After all, I rarely limit their screen time. They know that as long as they are also choosing to engage in other types of media and play—reading, LEGO, hiking, drawing, etc.—I won’t get involved in regulating the way they allocate their own time. We’ve talked about it many times before. I’ve explained to them that they need to practice and experiment and discover their own personal time management preferences…”
