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If there is one downside technology that the internet has brought about, that is people getting lazy to read books and study the traditional way. When everything is accessible with one click, why should they bother going the extra mile for the same purpose?
While the conveniences brought by technology are useful for adults, it may leave a lot of effects on young learners. For one, kids may suffer comprehension problems. They can also grow impatient and take shortcuts when learning things. To mitigate the damages on these kids’ learning processes, it is better to switch to illustrative learning with the use of a stream table, visual experiments, mind map brainstorming, and other visual tools to aid in educating young minds.
What Are Visual Tools?
As the term suggests, visual tools are learning paraphernalia and equipment that can aid in a child’s learning. These tools are like illustrations of the complex concept or idea the teacher wants to explain to his young learners. A classic example of this tool would be a volcano experiment wherein a miniature volcano is made, and chemical reactions are re-enacted by combining certain chemicals to simulate a volcanic eruption. This is often used to explain why the volcano erupts, what can cause such eruptions, and also picture out what happens when the volcano finally spits the lava and magma out. With such an experiment, kids will have an easier time understanding the entire volcano eruption concept.
Why visual tools?
The main reason why visual tools like the volcano experiment are the best to educate young minds is because of the illustrative nature of these tools. Even if kids can read, sometimes, it would take time before they can fully make sense of the explanations put in words. So, to bridge the gap, it is best to use visual tools.
The Kid’s Mind is Like an Empty Sheet of Paper
Every child’s mind is like “tabula rasa” or an empty sheet of paper. As children experience and understand the world, they take down their learnings into these blank sheets of paper and integrate them into their consciousness, later on forming their own “stock knowledge.” When they absorb the wrongful information, they may have a hard time correcting such wrongful information later on. This is why it is important to use visual tools in educating young ones.
For example, if you use a stream table to explain how water flows into different bodies of water, they can better understand every process involved in it. As they grow older, they carry this explanation with them and relate it to other concepts.
Visual Tools Explain Complex Concepts in a Language Young Learners Understand
For example, you want to explain to these young learn how relevant the earth’s electromagnetic field is. It is hard to let them picture out how a liquid surface surrounding the earth’s core protects the planet from solar winds and harmful radioactive waves entering the ozone layer. So, to illustrate this point, you can use visual tools wherein a giant ball is at the center, with incredibly fast-moving liquid surrounding it. Then, to demonstrate what happens when the liquid stops moving, you can show them a ball that is being blowtorched. You can then start explaining to them that if the electromagnetic field gets tired and stops moving, the earth can look like this fried ball. You then insert the moral lesson, that is, to take care of the planet. Everybody gets to leave home happy.
Takeaway
As many would say, it takes a village to raise a child. Parents are not the only ones responsible for molding the minds of the young ones. Teachers and people in the society also have a role in developing a future generation of people who have sharp minds and compassionate spirits. The best way to achieve this is by being proactive in the way kids are being educated.
