It should come as no surprise that the job of teaching children everything they need to know is easier said than done. There’s a considerable amount of pressure riding on this process and on the teachers.
Schools nationwide are craving for the evolution that only technology can provide them. The Melba S. Lehner Children’s School, in the McKay Education Building on the Ogden campus of Weber State University, understands this more than similar institutions.
For some people, technology has no role in the education of children. They believe that it’s a disruptive influence that serves only to rob children of their attention span. However, technology that’s properly incorporated into any lesson plan has the chance to produce highly effective results.
At WSU’s Children’s School, they have made it a point to take advantage of whatever technological innovations might assist them. When a new gadget comes onto the market, the people who work for WSU’s children’s school look at the gadget to see how it can benefit them. Their willingness to try new gadgets goes back several decades to this school’s inception.
“In 1981, when I was the director of the Children’s School, I obtained a grant from the Atari corporation,” Jim Bird, professor emeritus in education at WSU, said. “At that time, Atari was known more for its innovative computer games, but they also were one of the first companies (along with Apple) to start making computers for the individual.”
As time went on, the school continued to stay on the forefront of the most recent technology that’s being released.
“The Children’s School had the few computers that were even on the campus,” Bird said. “Because of these computers, the university (college, at the time) asked me to set up a course for faculty to learn how to use the personal computers.”
Teaching children with the newest technology allows the educators to stay ahead of their competitors. Education today is nothing like it was in previous eras. Different expectations are placed on educators that wouldn’t have come into play years ago. The people who are working to educate students need to have all the tools at their disposal.
Although the education program at WSU cannot teach their students how to use all forms of technology, they instill a curiosity towards future technologies. People who come out of this program are able to learn about new technology and figure out how they will use it to teach their students. New and old teaching methods will come in handy heading into the future. No longer can educators rely on old-fashioned processes to get them through.
The Children’s School is not just open to members of the student body. It’s open to people from the surrounding communities as well. Their goal is to provide students with the ultimate learning experience, while also serving as an educational resource in the area.
Universities are training grounds for new ideas. School administrators survey the landscape and want to provide a product that’s better than all the other schools out there. Few people out there can provide better education for children than students who have something to prove.
The costs associated with programs offered through the Children’s School differ depending on what someone wants. Children who are enrolled through this school are able to attend for 15 weeks at a time. After breaking down the cost over the course of 15 weeks, it’s easy to see that it’s an affordable arrangement. The quality of education the children receive at this school is top notch, which makes this an opportunity you can’t afford to miss.
It can be challenging to find better ways to educate children. Technology does a great deal of good, but it’s not the answer to all problems. Educators have to find ways to use technology better, not rely on it as the ultimate solution to every problem.
