Meditation apps are ubiquitous on the various app stores, but few are developed with students in mind.
We often think about technology as only being able to help kids with their academic skills. But the conative skills—like memory, resilience, interpersonal communication, and organization—are just as indicative of future success.
Luckily, smart programmers and developers have been working on resources for that section of mental growth as well. This area of education technology has more subscription-based services, but they also offer trials.
Think of this as “Choose Your Own Adventure”, but the adventure is navigating the sometimes confusing world of growing up. The child guides a character through various tricky social situations, learning the right approach as they go along.
Group projects and games help kids from around the world communicate, solve problems, and think creatively together. This would be particularly valuable for kids who don’t have much experience with other cultures.
Along a similar line, this site shows the player a random picture from Google Street View of places all around the world. It’s their job to guess where the picture was taken by placing a pin in the location.
Bet you didn’t think the Oregon Trail was still around. Bet you also didn’t realize that the game was teaching us executive function and decision-making skills all along. This app is slicker, but still the same concept as the one we played on old Apple II’s.
This app helps kids track their moods and give explanations for what is causing a certain way of thinking at the time. Developed originally for students with behavioral problems, it’s turning out to be useful for any child who needs to understand why they think what they think.
Meditation apps are ubiquitous on the various app stores, but few are developed with students in mind. This can be a great way for your child to calm down, relax, and think inwardly rather than about whatever stress is currently happening.
Technology can’t engender these kinds of traits by itself, but the summer is a great time for students to start thinking about their conative processes before the real stress begins.