software for children

There are various software applications to be used by children nowadays and they are readily available in the market. I can say that most of them are interactive by providing immediate feedback that is crucial for reinforcement of input and desired behariour (remember behaviourist theory?). Besides that, the software is colourfully design and has moving images that can definitely attract children’s attention, thus, increase its effectiveness as a teaching aid in the classroom. This software also allows children to discover many things own their own. This is quite true since I have saw my youngest sister was already able to know many things through such software at the age of three, when she was first introduced to computer (and she’s already have her own email by that time. Children nowadays….sigh). If so, I am sure older children can discover more with it since they are cognitively more mature.

However, each software application to be used for classroom activity should be evaluated first so that it is suitable for the pupils’ level of proficiency, topic and others to guarantee that the learning objectives can be achieved by the end of the lesson.

As teacher, I should also bear in mind that no matter how wonderful the software is, it cannot replace the importance of having teachers to teach. It is the teacher who guides and provokes the young minds to discover and to think deeper of a particular topic. In fact, the pupils also need the teacher to help them in using the computers. Therefore, the software should be used as a tool to assist teaching and learning, not a replacement for a teacher