Recommended Technology Use for 7-11 year-olds
In the first 4 years of primary education, apart from homework, 45 minutes per day should be reserved for games and entertainment. In the following years, though the weekend can be more flexible, it is suitable to use 1 hour per day. Prepare weekly internet usage schedules and ensure compliance. Besides, it is not appropriate to put only Internet usage on the schedule. Children need routines. Just like the time to go to school, to eat, to do homework, the time to spend time on the Internet can be determined. Using it during the same hours every day will contribute to his/her adaptation and healthy use. “Boredom List” can be used for children who use technology because they do not know what to do and get bored in this age group. Encourage them to write down activities they want to do, but do not have the opportunity, and encourage them to do one of the things they write when they need it. Do not serve the child at the computer at meal and tea times, let him join you. Make sure that it is used in common areas, not in his/her room. Using it in his/her room will put the child in complete isolation and remove him/her from your supervision. Identify and discuss a technological topic you can talk about. Talk to him/her about the games s/he is listening to or playing. Go online together, play games or watch movies and then talk about these activities. In other words, help him/her transfer the information that s/he has acquired in the virtual world to the real world .
As for the content to be preferred for this age group, logic and intelligence games, coding, strategy games, vocabulary games that develop verbal skills and foreign language games are among the useful options.
However, when the total effect of watching television (computer, tablets etc. including all kinds of screens) instead of educational programs is considered, it has been determined that there is a negative correlation between watching a lot of television and school success . In other words, as the television viewing rate increases, school success decreases (Huston and Wright, 1998). In another study, it was determined that watching too much TV has a negative effect on the development of reading skills of both girls and boys. For this reason, it is more convenient to watch the programs that are controlled by parents and prepared for the development of the child pedagogically over the Internet.
In addition, the existence of content that uses violence as a problem-solving tool in computer games and programs watched is not suitable for the development of children. Studies conducted shows that physical aggression levels increase as a result of children’s directly imitating the violence they are exposed to through violent games or programs or by being indirectly affected by the increase in the level of emotional hostility caused by these contents decreasing the children’s capacity to empathize with others