Question
Good Morning. My daughter's school wants to introduce a new IT vision starting from next year with the year 4 class. It would involve the parents and the school together purchasing laptops for each student and the students using them for a maximum of 15-20 hours per week by year 6 and being allowed to take them home for personal use and homework no more than 20 days per term. The school already has a computer room and the children are assigned a couple of hours a week to learn computers and research on the internet.
We are not keen on the idea for several reasons. For starters our daughter still does not hold her pen correctly when she writes, we don't think children at that age should be carrying around technology to and from school and we prefer a minimum amount of homework in the primary school years.
We are also concerned about how easily it is for children and adults alike to become addicted to their devices and would like the primary school years to be a more traditional form of learning and for children to be children before making the transition into adulthood via the teen years.
The school held an information evening last night about this and asked parents to get back to them by next Wednesday. They have been researching and planning for this for the past 18 months (only told us about it last week) and have spoken to all the big wigs and have 'research evidence' on their side for the positives of the program.
I don't see them dropping the idea if they have invested this much time and effort into the program - including training the teachers. Do you have any research you can refer me to in the short time that I have to state the case for the other side - i.e.: that there is little to no benefit in this program at this stage in a child's development? Any advice or help would be most appreciated! Thank you.
