BENEFITS OF INTERACTIVE LEARNING MEDIA TO THE VISUALLY-ORIENTED PRE-ELEMENTARY PUPILS

FAITH JOY M. GONZALES

It is evident one of the attributes of the 21st century learners including pre-elementary children are being visuallyoriented. Being visually-oriented denotes that most of the learners prefer to learn, associate and relate concepts, ideas and knowledge to the use of visual aids and elements such as pictures, illustrations, animation and most of all through digital tools. Modern-day pre-school children have natural inclination towards colorful visuals and attractive digital tools and virtual technologies used in representing instructional concepts and content knowledge. It is attestable that eliciting and stimulating learners’ interest, motivation and engagement towards the lessons or instruction become more attainable when they have access to visual and digital tools. Apparently, the use of interactive learning media can serve the purpose of supporting the visually-oriented learning of the pupils while at the same time teaching them on how to associate meanings of instruction to the elements of learning media and visual aids. This is where the usefulness and functionality of interactive learning media come in. Interactive learning media come in wide array of digital tools and virtual technologies that integrate integral functions for instructional delivery, presentation and management. These learning media highlight opportunities to foster more dynamic, interactive and innovative learning as these are intended to make learners well-engaged, stimulated and mobilized in the interactive learning process. In addition, the capacity of the interactive learning media to foster dynamic and interactive learning process lie on the fact that learners not only interact with their teachers and fellow pupils in the lesson, but also make them connect meaningfully with the interactive learning tool in itself since it serves as the key towards the recognition and retention of content knowledge. Moreover, another in-depth realization in terms of digitalization of pre-elementary education is that learners are now open to wide range and immense choices and options when it comes to diverse forms of interactive learning media and digital tools. Thus, these wider options in interactive learning media can be considered as complementary to ample opportunities to improve learners’ access to innovative learning tools, technologies and resources to reinforce and support their learning endeavor. In addition, the potentiality of interactive learning media also lies on the fact that variety of these educational media fosters opportunities to match with the level of needs, skills, learning styles and preferences of diverse preelementary learners. The interactive learning media, if used accurately and efficiently can foster balance in responding to the positive diversity among pre-school learners in the contexts of learning strategies, learning enthusiasm, motivational level and response towards technological integration in instruction.

-oOoTHE AUTHOR IS TEACHER II AT SAPANG BIABAS RESETTLEMENT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, DIVISION OF MABALACAT CITY