Healthy Kids • YMCA Camps and Outdoor Education • YMCA Child Care
How to use technology to get the kids outdoors
13 July 2016 - by Cheryl - YMCA Child Care
Smartphones, tablets, cameras, and apps for every interest or hobby — there's no denying the role technology plays in our everyday lives. It's what we use to work, learn, and communicate with others, and what we most likely reach for first during our down time.
Research shows children spend more time in front of screens than they do being physically active, and parents are constantly trying to find the balance between tech time with non-digital outdoor play time.
The good news is that, if technology is used in the right way, it can be used to help kids engage with and explore the outdoors. Here are four great examples:
Technology can be a great tool for encouraging children to get outdoors and learn while playing. Just don't tell them that — they're on summer vacation and “learning” may be the last thing on their to-do list.
Have a favourite app or activity that combines technology and the great outdoors? We'd love to hear about it!
Research shows children spend more time in front of screens than they do being physically active, and parents are constantly trying to find the balance between tech time with non-digital outdoor play time.
The good news is that, if technology is used in the right way, it can be used to help kids engage with and explore the outdoors. Here are four great examples:
- One of the easiest ways to use technology to encourage kids to head outdoors is to give them a camera. Digital and video cameras are excellent for recording nature and outdoor adventures to share and study later. A camera puts kids in charge of documenting events, and gives them the opportunity to observe changes in their environment over an extended period of time.
- Geocaching is an outdoor scavenger hunt where participants use a GPS-enabled device (like a smartphone) to find hidden treasures known as “caches.” There are more than 400,000 caches hidden in over 100 countries and on all seven continents, including more than 7,000 in the Greater Toronto Area.
- Leaf collection projects just got a lot easier and more accurate thanks to mobile technology. Interactive field guide apps like Leaf Snap (a plant identification app) and Audubon Bird (a bird identification app) can be downloaded onto phones or tablets to help children identify plants and animals while they are exploring the outdoors.
- Webcams can be used to observe events as they happen. Setting a webcam up near a bird feeder, for example, allows kids to watch birds from a distance without disrupting them or scaring them away. Webcams can also help children learn about animals without physically traveling to a zoo or an aquarium.
Technology can be a great tool for encouraging children to get outdoors and learn while playing. Just don't tell them that — they're on summer vacation and “learning” may be the last thing on their to-do list.
Have a favourite app or activity that combines technology and the great outdoors? We'd love to hear about it!
