Lil' Techies

I use a laptop and am often sitting on the couch “browsing” while the boys are nearby coloring, playing games or watching me “browse”. At the times when the boys are watching me surf the net, I alter my searching a bit to include things that might interest them, for example, doing an image search in Google for “Rhino” or other superheros.

In these browsing sessions, I like to think the kids are little sponges soaking in all the capabilities of the Internet as they watch me move around the web. Using the philosophy of teaching by modeling, the kids are learning:

• To use the keyboard
• That the Internet has a wealth of resources on every topic
• How to form a search string
• Basic internet literacy (links, images, searching, URLs, videos)
• About different media sources (images, video, audio)
• Pearl growing (moving from resource to resource based on new material gleamed from the different resources)
Reference

Haston, W. (2007). Teacher Modeling as an Effective Teaching Strategy: Modeling Is a Technique that Can Help Your Students Learn Effectively in Many Situations. Music Educators Journal, 93(4): 26.