Educational Apps-More harmful than Candies

Picture Credit: Kensington Mums

Every parent is aware that candies, lollipops, jellies, gems, etc. are harmful for children.

Sugar candies are harmful for the children’s growth. They do not provide any nutrition and are a source of harm for a child’s health.

The marketplace is flooded with educational apps. There is an app for reading, then another one for comprehension, then there are scores of apps for Science and Math, General Knowledge and quiz apps are also flooding the Google play store.

In the race to embrace technology, parents are rushing after these apps to ensure that their child is overloaded with knowledge and has that extra edge which the other children do not have.

Parents feel that the era of self learning has arrived and so the more the child learns the better he would stand a chance to succeed in the world.

According to a survey in June 2015, there were more than 80000 educational apps available on the internet. But the authenticity of these apps cannot be known. It means it is unsure that out of these apps how many are only educational apps. The creators have the option of categorizing the apps into education or any other field before launching.

Now let us look at the population figures. India is a country where 30 babies are born every minute. We have the largest youth force around 600 million under the age of 25. Indian youth are known for their emerging entrepreneurial skills and these skills can be developed with good education.

Now if India wants to reap this harvest and scale its economic growth, the government will focus on the education industry. Hence this industry is at number 5 in India.

Looking at the exorbitant numbers it is obvious that the software giants will want to tap in this industry to make the most out of it. Business and profits need high scaled numbers. You have a large area where you can target to get the necessary output.

The main customer out here-the parent also has the paying capacity and so they are easily lured by these apps.

One thing which I have noted over the past years is that teaching and learning is a human integrated process. Technology can never deliver what a teacher can. I am focusing on the age group between 0-15 years.

Just before the American summer vacation starts, scores of parents download the app to keep the children busy and in an attempt to keep them tuned to education so that they are able to cope well when they go out to school in September.

Why you should avoid apps?

They lead to addiction:

As quoted in the headline, they are just like candies which lead to addiction. The children like to hit the screens because they are getting something which was prohibited. By giving an educational app on the mobile you are just reinstating the fact that you can use the mobile. It won’t harm you.

Loss in concentration:

A major disadvantage is that these apps do not develop patience and concentration among the children. The children become impatient just as we are when we are using the devices.

The level of distraction is very high among the children who are frequent mobile users and the same applies to the use of educational apps also.

The app might not have educational content at all:

All the app developers choose the category –Education before uploading the content. This does not mean necessarily that the app has only educational content to view.

The developer might have sugar coated merely gaming content in the form of educational needs. And if this is served to the child then there are chances that the child might not learn what was intended to.

They Lose Trust on Human connections and rely more on technology:

The millennial workforce is comfortable with technology and they use it and explore it and overuse it to help themselves in their daily life and to make their work easier.

In this hustle they have forgotten the importance of human skills and interaction. Some of the normal skills like hitting a nail, or doing some carpentry work, etc. all is lost to this workforce.

They just rely upon the click of a button to the get the work done.

By keeping children away from apps, you can introduce them to such skills which are more informative and help in developing concentration.

Yes we need the integration of technology in education. This should not be avoided.

Someone rightly pointed out that it won’t help to escape or remain absent from the changing scenario. But yes, apps and other software and all gadgets should not be frequently given to the children.

Engaging the children in other far more meaning practical work, will develop them better as individuals.

Remember this is the age of technology and so these children are already digitally literate. They need other important skills in their lives.

Let us give them that.