How Technology can Enhance Hands-On Play

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By now you’ve probably noticed the little black and white squares resembling impossibly difficult crossword puzzles that seem to have popped up everywhere overnight. QR Codes (for Quick Response) are the savvier uptown cousin to the barcodes we’ve known for generations. And they provide virtually instantaneous access to information, videos, websites, special promotions, contests – the list will no doubt be growing for years – to anyone with a smart phone. One quick download of a QR scanning app, and you’re on your way.

So where does the children’s museum come in? For 30 years, the Children’s Museum of Richmond has professed the value of hands-on, get down on your knees and get your hands dirty, play. Young children learn through pretending, through touching and manipulating objects, through interacting with one another, and through experimenting to see what works and what doesn’t, and why. Rarely will the museum introduce a screen into the environment; after all, children are meant to move! However, QR Codes might just serve to enhance all that physical and imaginary play.

All of our exhibits are designed so that children learn and benefit from them, but the experience can almost always be heightened when an adult interacts with the child. However, parents and other adults sometimes aren’t sure what to do or how to help the child get the most out of an exhibit.

In an initiative that will begin rolling out through September, CMoR will incorporate the use of QR Codes in the museum experience. Parents can scan the code next to an exhibit and they’ll be taken to a video telling them what skills their child is developing, suggesting ways to help their young ones learn even more from the activity and sharing ideas with them for continuing the learning at home.

Say, for instance, that you are spending the day at the children’s museum with your four and six year olds and you’ve made your way to the Bank exhibit. Your children will no doubt head directly for the ATM and withdraw a million dollars, then proceed to the teller window to take turns being the teller and the customer. Meanwhile, you scan the QR Code on the wall and watch the video while it explains that your children are learning about deposits and withdrawals, the use of technology to manage accounts, that “adding to savings vs. giving in to cravings” results in growing or shrinking their piggy banks, and how to identify currency and the different values. They are also benefitting from pretending, which nurtures imagination and expands children’s social, language and thinking skills.

The video wraps up by suggesting that you can further your child’s understanding by explaining as you write checks, use ATM cards or pay for groceries in your daily routine. Let them budget for toys they’d like to buy, pay them a few coins for small jobs and teach them about charitable giving. When parents know what is going on in those rapidly developing little minds, they can give verbal cues and point out aspects of the exhibit, and in everyday life, that will enhance the play they naturally engage in. QR Codes, the technology of the moment, can be just the vehicle to strengthen good, old-fashioned play.