Susanne Roboom: Digital media with children
Digital media in childcare center and children's rooms - hardly any other topic is so controversial. While some parents are enthusiastic about buying the latest technological gadgets for their children, others would prefer to delay contact with digital media for as long as possible. What do experts recommend? How can childcare centers and parents promote competent use of digital media? Susanne Roboom from Blickwechsel e.V. knows the answers to these questions.
Ms. Roboom, in general, what is your stance on early media education?
Susanne Roboom: If you look at the importance of media in society, then the question can no longer be whether children should be allowed to use media, but rather how we should shape and support children's use of media. Even kindergarten children are confronted with media everywhere. In the morning, parents read the daily newspaper via an app, the robot vacuum cleaner does its job thanks to programming commands, there are information displays on the streetcar or in museums, and toys are increasingly digital. And the possibilities opened up by digital technology are developing rapidly. Just take the self-driving car: 20 years ago still a utopia, it is now at least a technical reality.
What advice would you give to parents who feel anxious at the thought of digital media in childcare center and children's rooms?
As is so often the case in education, it's all about finding the right balance and a critical and constructive attitude. Every new medium initially triggers heated discussions. Can you still imagine today that there were huge concerns when the first television programs for preschool children appeared in the 1970s with Sesame Street and Rappelkiste? Today, we can hardly imagine what will be possible in five or ten years' time. This makes it all the more important to prepare children for their future and not for our past. It makes sense for parents and educational professionals to talk to children about media, offer them processing and orientation aids and teach them how to use it creatively and sensibly. Of course, with a healthy dose of distance and the awareness that it is a tool that can sometimes be "off the air".
What do children learn when using digital media?
Media have long been more than just "gaming devices". They are a means of creating, documenting, researching, observing, presenting and reflecting. And last but not least, children's fascination is also a driving force for learning. Even kindergarten children are highly motivated to use digital media in a creative, planned and reflective way under competent guidance, for example when they document experiences and processes with a camera, create their own animated films, conduct interviews or present project results. They get to know media as a creative means of design and expression and gradually develop a critical eye.
How can adults pick up on children's interest?
There are great options here both at home and at childcare center . Instead of simply giving their children game apps to keep them occupied, parents can install a drawing app, use the recording function in the picture book app or let their children take photo puzzles with their cell phone camera, for example: The children take pictures of small details on walks or around the house and the parents have to guess what is in the picture. Or the other parent or friends can be involved via Messenger: "Let's see if Dad can guess where we are!". With their parents or at childcare center , children can use the camera to search for colors, shapes, letters or numbers and create a scavenger hunt with photo puzzles or a photo memory, for example.
What can be done to prevent media use from getting out of hand?
In general, it helps to stay in contact with each other, to deal with the interests and preferences of the children and to establish comprehensible rules. A media usage contract, for example, is recommended here. I advise against using media use as a reward or punishment, as this makes it even more important to the children.
Parents should be aware of their role model function, especially when it comes to media use, and allow themselves mobile-free times, e.g. at mealtimes, in conversations or when picking up their children from kindergarten. But of course they can also teach their children that smartphones and laptops are work tools for them and that different rules therefore sometimes apply for children and adults.
How do parents find good media offers for children?
There is a seemingly endless selection of apps and websites for even the very youngest children. Offers such as Flimmo, Klick-Tipps, Kinderbuchcouch, Kinderfilmwelt and the German Youth Institute's "Apps for Children" database provide important guidance and advice. A compilation can be found at www.blickwechsel.org.
The project "BildungshAPPchen - auf dem Tablet serviert" (little educational apps - served on a tablet), for which Blickwechsel received a media education award from the Bremen State Media Authority in November 2017, is aimed at educational professionals. It offers educators guidance, specific recommendations and manageable method modules for integrating digital media into their educational concept in a way that promotes education and provides parents with advice.
About Susanne Roboom
Susanne Roboom has a degree in education and is the first chairwoman and education officer of Blickwechsel e.V. Her work focuses on the media education qualification of educational professionals, the use of media in childcare center and elementary school as well as media education work with parents. She is the author of specialist articles as well as specialist books and work materials for kindergartens and elementary school. Her publications include, among others: "Dealing with media competently and creatively. Basiswissen & Praxisanregungen", Beltz-Verlag 2017, and "www.rananmausundtablet.de: Materialpaket zur Medienbildung für childcare centers und Grundschulen im Auftrag der Landesanstalt für privaten Rundfunk in Hessen (LPR)".
About Blickwechsel e.V.
Blickwechsel e.V. is a non-profit association based in Göttingen with regional offices in Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia. The association has been committed to promoting media literacy for 25 years and offers media education training, projects and information events for parents - completely or almost free of charge in many federal states. The Blickwechsel e.V. team also produces working materials for educational professionals and provides methodological suggestions, helpful materials, literature recommendations and surfing tips on its website for the creative, educational use of media and family media education.
