If you are a parent now, can you pause for a moment and think of your childhood? What is your fondest memory? If you were in the urban setting, maybe watching cartoons on Television? If you grew up in the countryside, probably you remember trying to finish house chores to get some time to do your homework, maybe using a paraffin lamp as electricity was a luxury beyond your imagination.
Fast forward to today. You are a parent of a teenager. Your child belongs to Generation Z mostly referred to as ‘Gen Z’. This is the first social generation to have grown up with access to the internet and portable digital technology from a young age. These generation z children have been dubbed digital natives even though they are not necessarily digitally literate.
Your child most probably spends most of his time on the online streets. If he or she is not playing some online games, he or she is watching some videos on YouTube, trying out some video recording for Tik Tok or posing for some photos for Instagram. A new trend is also catching up. Children are increasingly searching for assignment clues or answers online.
The good and bad of digital technology
It definitely is a good thing to be able to quickly access and learn new information online, get some entertainment while at it and in some cases, even earn some money for posting creative content.
But as a parent, where do you draw the line to protect your innocent child from being exposed to cyberbullying, online addiction and sexual abuse that could result in emotional instability and social skills inadequacy?
Unfortunately, many parents are not aware of the risk their children face while online.
That’s where we step in as Eldohub. We ensure productively and value-adding use of the digital platforms for your child. We offer a variety of ways to enhance education, technology, and innovation in your child’s daily digital operations.
Our Kids/Teen Bootcamp program is not just about teaching kids to use the software available on the internet, but rather we teach them to be producers of this technology. In our training curriculum, we try as much as possible to instill creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurial skills. In as much as we want our children to be computer literate, learning to code does not just set someone for a career opportunity later but is the most straightforward way for children to boost their problem-solving skills.
As Barrack Obama, the former American President cautioned, there is a need for our children to learn 21st-century skills for a 21st-century world, and coding to teach them creativity and problem-solving skills.
Our modules focus on prompting the participants to tell stories, animate characters, and develop unique programs, which empower them to combine their logical and systematic thinking with creative, artistic, and intuitive learning. During the programming, kids are constantly natured to experiment on various tools that have been identified to be used purposely for the training. Once these kids have been introduced to different basic functionalities of the technologies available, and since they have tested the consumption of these technologies, they can continually ask themselves, what if I tried this? Would that work?
Beginning this term, we are open to after school coding program every Wednesday to Friday from 3-5pm(2hrs) hours only. The program will be starting on 2nd May 2022. We started this program after one of the parents from the past cohort requested to enroll his kid in the coding program after school. For more information regarding this program, please contact us at info@eldohub.co.ke /0112006932 or visit our office at the 6th Floor, Kiptagich House, near the Central Bank in Eldoret.
To increase parental awareness and enhance cyber security knowledge, we have conducted a Parenting in the Digital Age Workshop for caregivers to learn ways of protecting themselves and their children while online. Watch the training here. Today’s education curriculum requires kids to access the internet purposely for their homework and therein lurks the danger of their innocence being exploited by online predators.
Follow us on social media for more updates regarding the workshop.