Another advertisement for a "Montessori App" crossed my email this week. This time it was complete with a demo video. The app was apparently developed in conjunction with a well known Montessori school somewhere.
I wanted to know more about yet another app, so I watched it. It reminded me a lot of the look of many computer games for preschoolers. Add the letter to sound out the word, etc and the voice over will help ou hear it. It "looks" like the Montessori materials are being used- except nobody is writing their own words or making mistakes.
There are the continent globes. They have some nice pictures attached.
Then came the "pink tower." First you place the blocks in size order on the "rug." Then you get to build a tower. Really? We can build a pink tower now with one finger, but the system won't allow for mistakes.
This is just inevitable. Adults that use technology think that it has to be developed right for the kids. It has the Montessori name and school sponsorship. I'm trying to figure out how to really make the argument that it is just not the same.
2 comments:
I absolutely agree with you.
I would go so far as to say that there is no place for an app or anything like it in the primary classroom. The children at that age are working so sensorially that for most of them the lack of sensory feedback and control of error makes this type of technology redundant.
I would say that technology starts to come into its own as a tool in its own right in the elementary classroom, where the children's need for sensorial learning lessens. However, I use it very sparingly and mostly as a tool to vary how they present research, so a powerpoint presentation or learning to use Word to write a report. We use the internet if we don't have a book available with info that a child is searching for and occasionally for video clips.
Older children could write code and make their own programmes.
For the 3-6 age group though - it misses the point entirely.
"We must give no more to eye and ear than we give to the hand"-Montessori (Her Life and Work) This is a Montessori quote I remember from my training!
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