Media Learners: Determining if Your Child Prefers Digital Lessons

My child is a "media learner." What does this mean? It means she learns easiest by watching videos and TV, playing games on the computer or online, and playing video games. Now, I am not a parent that allows my child to spend untold hours in front of a TV or computer, or glued to her Gameboy. But still, she is better able to understand concepts when they are presented on a "screen".

Recently, she needed to learn about absolute value, positive/negative integers, and adding/subtracting positive/negative integers. Her easy to understand math book had a neat visual analogy of football gains and losses. She was utterly confused. Maybe it was because she never watched football, so I tried a regular number line. I made a game with a number line and little characters to use a hands-on method of teaching this concept. She had fun, but still didn't get it. I read info aloud to her, had her read it to herself, and still no go. Then I found a website that had short videos about a multitude of subjects. She watched the video about absolute value, took the quiz, scored 8/10! Then the video about adding/subtracting integers-she scored 10/10 this time! It clicked!

This is not unusual for her. I have tutored other children who I probably would have helped a lot more had I realized they may be media learners! A math game online where she has to decide if two different equations are either equal or not, and which is greater than/less than showed me her mental math is much more progressed than I thought! Her scores were high, and she was taking an average of 2 seconds to answer each one. Way faster than me! Bill Nye the Science Guy has taught her way more about pollution than I probably wanted her to know, and a simple geometry game taught her what a hypotenuse is before she hit 3rd grade. I still do most teaching using hands-on activities, and supplement with some workbooks. But I have found that when we reach a concept I'm not sure how to teach, or that she is having difficulty with, it is best to get her online to play some games or watch some videos. It's like magic watching the look in her eyes as something she thought was impossible to learn becomes easy-peasy in a matter of minutes.

How to recognize a media learner:
Does your child prefer hands-on activities?
Does your child enjoy playing computer or video games?
After watching Liberty's kids on PBS, does your child start telling friends/family about the redcoats and the Boston tea party?
Does your child read an explanation of where Lewis and Clark traveled and look up with a look that says "I don't get it"?
Is your child lost in his/her own world 15 seconds after you start reading about the Civil War?
Is your child still resistant to learning or unable to understand concepts even though you have tried teaching methods for several learning styles?

If you answer most of these questions with a Yes, your child may be a media learner!

Here are some good resources for media learners:
Brainpop
Bill Nye the Science guy videos/DVDs
Liberty's Kids DVDs
National Geographic kids DVDs
Beakman Science Videos/DVDs
Cyberchase (on PBS)