Mrs Modupe Caleb, an education consultant and Chief Executive Officer, TechTips Nigeria Limited, Abuja, has described school holidays as a period where young children can enjoy, learn and engage in innovative learning.
Caleb stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja.
She added that the period of school break for young school children was long enough for parents to find digital and innovative ways to engage them.
Caleb urged parents to find free or funded tech summer camps to teach children about the cyber and virtual worlds.
According to her, such camps help children to widen their horizons and gain outside-of-classroom knowledge which will prepare them for the digitalised world ahead.
“There are digitally innovative platforms designed for students to learn English and maths in a very fun and relaxed way.
“ Some of these apps come with an intuitive quiz-based learning to enhance skills of children of 5 to 13 years of age group.
“ These events help children to increase their cognitive and physical development all at one place,’’ she said.
Caleb added that these Apps make learning fun by formulating questions keeping in mind the extent of knowledge of children, live testing to develop competitiveness against their peer group.
She said: ”Summer camps introduce children to involvement in a particular kind of experience and provide them with the opportunity to learn other things they might not be able to learn on their own or in their school.
“These camps are specially designed to give the children the advantage of the experience in some fields that they do not otherwise have the opportunity to explore.
“They help the students to create a virtual tour of their spots they visited using Google Earth or other similar tools.
“They can then present their tour to their parents or teachers by narrating their favorite spots and sharing interesting facts.”
Caleb urged that kids should also be encouraged to keep journals where they can document what they have learnt and seen during the holiday.
She also recommended that kids be taught the early use of science plants journal app, which involves having children use the camera tool on a tablet or phone to document plant growth.
“ Engaging them in activities like this helps channel their device use away from social media which can be addictive,’’ Caleb said.
She urged parents to use digital media to enhance their children’s learning, adding ” they should only spend about two hours a day using it while using their remaining time to engage in other fulfilling activities.”
NAN
