to think primary school children shouldn't be parked in front of videos and ipads during class time?

[schroedingersdodo]

Ds1 will start reception this year and I've visited several of the schools nearby. This morning I went to the one considered the best in the area. Outstanding ofsted, catchment area of 200m (heard people rent nearby to get a place for first child and then move away again), yadda yadda yadda.

In the reception class quite a few children were playing with ipads on a table. The head said the school has 30 ipads and they are always being used by the teachers in class (as part of the class programme). I passed by at least two classrooms were all the children were watching videos in a big screen, one of them Rhyme Rocket from cbeebies.

Sometimes I do plonk my Dc in front of the tv or ipad, so I can do something else, but I consider this a lazy solution, that I use when I can't be bothered to think of something else and am too tired to parent properly.

AIBU to think plonking children in front of screens is not the role of the school, and that the teachers should be engaging them in activities and not relying on ipads to keep them quiet/well behaved?

Being able to write using an ipad (rather than on paper) has improved DS's writing skills no end (the only time I've ever known him look forward to literacy).

Tablets and computers are necessary things for children to become familiar with.

Judging by MN all schools will use plonking children in front of DVDs etc at some point - it will generally be for 10 minutes (maybe at end of day) or special occasions though.

I do not think that any particular classroom activity necessarily equates to being "parked".

If you think the school cannot use technology effectively in the classroom, then yes you are unlikey to have a good relationship with that school and might be better off using your preferences differently.

Tablets, computers, touch screen technology are part of the world today and the future, its important dc can use them. I wonder how children will be learning in 30 year's.

They may not necessarily be watching tv a lot of the time, you only visited the school today and are not there all the time, so it may be that it is a very rare thing, but you happened to be there. I wouldn't worry about the tv too much.
As for the ipad's, due to the change in technology it is vitally important to encourage children to be using them during class time. IMO a school isn't up to date if they do not have ipad's or access them. And this is coming from someone who is currently studying a degree surrounding education, and currently completing an essay about the importance of technology for children.
If it is an outstanding school then I feel you have no worries. Technology is normal in schools these days. Hope this helps!

I think YABVU. iPads are brilliant for learning and, the BBC shows a lot of educational stuff.
I have no idea what rhyme rocket is, but, if it's similar to the number thing it is educational.
If you feel so strongly about it, home educate.

What you probably saw was part of a maths lesson or I.T

iPads are used in my DC's school too. They're used to enhance learning, not to plonk kids to keep them quiet. the outstanding status of the school should give you a clue that they're being used in the right way.

You seem to be conflating the delivery method used with the actual activity being delivered.

Because you can use ipads for angry birds/facebook/porn it doesn't mean that is all you can do or they lack educational value.

Your post makes as much sense as saying 'I visited a primary school and the children were all sat in the classroom on chairs at tables! I use a table at home to eat off, why are the children spending all day eating at school?'

You're going to have a lot of trouble finding a school then.

It is all tablets/laptops/SMART boards these days. Everything is interactive. If you are worried about too much screen time, maybe you should consider home education?

Haha had the same reaction than you when a secondary school near us decided that all children had to have an iPad so they could work and learn better.

Also had the same comments than above as to why it wasn't even possible to think that children can learn wo iPad and that in our society children have to learn how to use an iPad as it had taken every single one if us years to learn how to use one

Unfortunately it us frowned upon to use tv and iPads at home. The time children spend on it should be restricted etc but it doesn't seem to apply to school where it's clearly for educational purposes.
I tend to disagree but know I will be aver lonely voice on here (and in RL)

When I was at school people could of said the same about computers, however by the time I was in secondary school ICT was it's own subject, computer science is a degree of its own along with other similar computer related degrees.

iPads and tablets are computers of the future, I completely agree with children becoming familiar with them from an early age. At university out coursework is submitted online, I study nursing so not directly related to IT but they expect you to know how to do it or figure it out, for some of the older students who didn't learn this sort of thing at school they find it a struggle.

I don't think it is being 'plonked' or 'parked' in front of these things but a vital part of education adapted to be age appropriate

Did you never watch television at school as a child?
I did (and I'm old!)

Words and Pictures
Watch
You and Me

All once a week in the staff room on a huge tv that had to be rolled out on castors. I can remember vividly my younger sister learning about Magic E in Reception (now we just teach it as a split digraph for the initial long vowel sound - I prefer the concept of magic E!)

A lot of the BBC content is excellent for early literacy and music skills. I have used Alphablocks games on the Cbeebies website as an independent activity in a Foundation Stage classroom on small laptops/tablets. It was as a follow up to my whole class phonics teaching, some of which was delivered on the interactive white board.

Screens can be useful teaching devices.

so, for example, the class has been looking at rhyming words in phonics, and have been learning about rain, train, pain etc.

At the end of the activity, the teacher shows a clip from a TV show, which has the same rhymes, or a song with the rhymes in etc, to show the same information from a different perspective.

But it looks like being dumped in front of the screen.

During the day in reception and Y1 there are times of choosing activities, related to a theme, so the theme is all about night time (nocturnal animals, torches and electricity, the moon or whatever) On the ipad is a game that shows the nocturnal animals and you have to find their home. In the ''good old days'' the game would have been pieces of cardboard and coloured pictures. Today it is on a screen.

Btw the reason I not keen on interactive tools to be used too much is the following:
Learning is a slow process where you will go slowly and you will need to put some effort in wo quick rewards. Using iPad etc shortcut that issue and will certainly keep children 'keener' but it won't teach them what they do need to learn at school ie putting lots of efforts before you can see changes

Having said that, at my school children use iPads. It's either for fun or to do internet search. They are easy to move, don't take space so easier to handle with the children.
But I have to say, I do know, from what my dcs tell me, that they do use videos and iPads to keep children quiet, eg during rehersals for the Christmas play and other less obvious reasons.

I don't dispute the importance of videos and ipads, I just think they have too much of that already in their lives, and the role of educators (the parents and the school) is to try and balance things. In a very deprived area, where children have no access to technology, it would be brilliant to present them to children in the school.

In a non deprived area where children probably are given an ipad every time they go to a restaurant with the parents so they keep quiet, I think the role of the educators is to teach them to deal with the real world, atoms, physical things, deal with people face to face, etc.

It's a matter of balance, not of demonising technology.

Ladyindisguise I'm happy there is another lone voice here!

And I don't plan to home educate because I think it's important for my DC to spend some time away from me, in a different environment - and it's good for me too. I'm sure they would learn a lot more about writing, maths, science, history, geography, etc, being home educated, but school is not just for academic stuff.

Oh dear.

If you look just over the horizon you will see a Steep Learning Curve - you are just about to climb onto it.

Don't become 'that' parent before your child has even started school.

Ladyindisguise X posted with you. The quick reward thing gets on my nerves too! (sticker chart, anyone?) Expecting quick recognition for my efforts did no favours to my career, and I want my DC to learn that sometimes, lots (and lots) of work and effort will come before the reward.

Well, I digress :)

YABU. I was at school in the nineties/2000's and we had computers then too. All our coursework and essays had to be typed - exam boards wouldn't accept them if they were handwritten, and when I left school in 2007, our school was starting to provide every single pupil with a laptop that they would "own", with school intranet software/programmes installed on them.

Kids need to know how to use iPads and computers and not just for games at home. This technology isn't optional anymore.

They have their whole lives to learn that.

Seriously, go and try to find a school that doesn't use all this technology.

If you're seriously worried, ask to go in again on a different day at a different time. Ask to look at a sample of their books, any project work. I did this in one school and realised while the reception class were all playing when I went to see them, what they achieved throughout the year was quite impressive.

Otherwise all you really have is a snapshot of one of many activities they do during the day and while you're not overly impressed it doesn't mean it's a bad school.

I don't think reception children learn about atoms much. They do science, bit it not atom related.

I didn't mean learning about atoms. I meant dealing with real stuff, stuff made of atoms, instead of films/etc.

I very rarely teach a lesson where the children are not 'plonked' in front of an IWB (what I'm assuming you are calling a tv) to watch a clip/play an interactive game etc. it is maybe 10 mins at the start of a lesson. very jealous they have iPads!

I'm guessing what you saw was the start of lessons while you were looming around, or possible the ends.

iPads in early years are shown to improve hand eye coordination needed for writing. They will be playing interactive learning games and I'm betting their time on them will be limited.