In the digital age, many studies highlight its harmful effects on child development. However, the use of this type of tool should not be banned, but it is essential to educate children in the use of these devices so that they can use them appropriately.
How can we encourage reasoned and beneficial use in learning ?
To use digital tools wisely, it is essential to create a secure framework and to provide digital education (S. Tisseron, 2013).
Since the COVID health crisis, considerable changes have emerged, notably in our relationship with digital technology and learning. At school, for example, the use of tablets can be a real teaching aid in learning and has allowed some children to avoid the digital divide.
Using these tools makes it possible to personalise school pathways in the way best suited to each person. (Michèle DRECHSLER, 2011). In addition, its ease of use and the fact that it can be taken anywhere is a real asset. Everyone is also free to choose the time or place of use. Finally, the tablet allows a playful side, with choices of colours (mind mapping), animations and short video clips that can make learning a lesson much more pleasant.
These tools can help children, but they must not be the exclusive means of learning. Printing or copying this type of mind map, for example, also allows the child to activate multi-sensory learning.
Research by J-M Gélis and F. Villemonteix (2015) explains that using tablets makes pupils more active. They download, read, solve problems and do quizzes. Each person becomes an actor in their own learning while moving forward at their own pace. Tablets allow individual manipulation, but the whole point is also to be able to alternate with collective use. This is made possible when they are connected, for example, to the interactive whiteboard. It is also important to move beyond simple digital use and to create debate, allowing and offering exchanges and interaction around everyone’s individual productions. This also activates the child’s storytelling skills, which are essential to their healthy development. (S. Tisseron, 2013).
According to Thierry Karsenti, professor at the Université de Montréal, it is worth thinking about a collaborative use of these tools. Some classes have produced collaborative books involving several classes, created comic strips, web radio, and so on.
In all cases, it is essential to provide guidance in using these tools. According to the psychotherapist Christel Petitcollin, “it is better for children to be comfortable with a drop-down menu and touch controls; the essential thing is not to leave them alone with these objects, and to keep up the dialogue with them.”
Pupils may see the use of tablets as a game. It is then important to make them responsible in how they handle these technologies. It is essential to carry out prevention beforehand, so that everyone understands the dangers. It may also be worthwhile to create a “code of use”, allowing rules on tablet use to be built together.
Build together a guide to good practice that addresses the question of time. Indeed, anyone can get hooked, and digital education involves learning self-regulation.
In this way, the child is guided towards a more reasoned use of digital technology.
Finally, screens are like everything else: consume them, yes, but in moderation ! We must educate very early towards a moderate and reasoned use of screens.
Salomé Fieffé
