eLearning Can Be a Challenge for Kids – Here’s What You Can Do

These days, many teachers are attempting to leverage eLearning tools and programs to help their students learn more effectively than ever before. But eLearning tech doesn’t always take with kids immediately. While eLearning can definitely be a challenge for kids, there are many things you can do to make the transition smooth.

Tailor Their Learning to Their Interest

One great way in which you can maximize eLearning’s benefits is to tailor your subjects and topics to your students’ interests. For example, say that most of your kids are particularly interested in math as it relates to computers (a common enough occurrence these days).

In that case, you can use online learning tools and programs to tailor your math lessons so that they relate to computers or games.

Alternatively, maybe many of your kids are interested in animals. eLearning tools and programs can help you teach kids about science by directly relating your lessons to real animals and plants, some of which they may be able to see when they head outdoors.

Teach in Multiple Environments

One of the best aspects of eLearning is that it’s totally unattached from a traditional classroom environment. Use this to your advantage and switch up your teaching environment relatively frequently.

For example, you can teach in your normal classroom most of the time. But you can also take your lesson outdoors, particularly when the weather is nice and the sun is shining. You can also adapt your lessons to fit the current environment – what could be more fun and topical than teaching a biology lesson to younger students while you take them outside to the playground, where they can see real organisms interact right before their eyes?

Since online learning is becoming more and more prevalent, it’s smart to get used to this early. Implement new environments into your teaching early and you’ll be ahead of the curve compared to other teachers.

Use Educational Games!

You shouldn’t underestimate the importance of gamification when it comes to teaching younger students. “Gamification” essentially involves turning learning activities into games: something that children universally appreciate.

Fortunately, this doesn’t necessarily involve totally switching up your lesson plans for outlines. For example, say that you want to teach Python for kids. In that case, you could easily look up coding games for kids that can teach the fundamentals of Python and other coding languages, all without them even realizing they’re learning!

You can extend this to other subjects as well. There’s a veritable glut of math, science, and language games available. These teach kids the fundamentals of many of these subjects and allow them to have fun at the same time.

Don’t overdo gamification, of course. But leverage it as an important tool in your teacher’s kit when trying to make the most of eLearning technology.

Use a Flexible – Yet Structured – Learning Schedule

Lastly, you can make eLearning more fun and enjoyable for kids by providing a flexible and structured learning schedule. Isn’t that a contradiction?

Not exactly. Kids, like most adults, appreciate being able to anticipate what’s going to happen next in their day. But kids can also get bored with the same rote routine over and over. A good rule of thumb is to provide them with some consistency and also some novelty during each school day.

For example, you can keep the order of your lessons the same – you might always teach mathematics after science – but one part of your daily learning routine might involve a special, “mystery” lesson to keep their attention and give their imaginations some fuel.

Summary

All in all, eLearning provides a wealth of opportunities for teachers to provide valuable lessons and meaningful experiences to their students, even from afar. Use the above tips to help your kids make the most of eLearning tools and technology and you’ll see great results.

Featured Image: Andy Falconer, Unsplash.