How Technology Helps Kids Learn #LearningthroughGorillaGlass

This month, Tech Savvy Mama and Corning® Gorilla® Glass are sponsoring a fantastic contest that supports girls’ interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Encouraging Girls: The Corning® Gorilla® Glass Women Who Innovate Tough Contest

Today, more girls and women are using technology than ever before. But relatively few are playing a role in creating this technology. Designed to ignite girls’ interest in STEM, The Corning Gorilla Glass Women Who Innovate Tough Contest celebrates the tough challenges that girls can face and inspires more girls to create and build the technology of the future.

One very lucky parent-daughter pair will have the opportunity to travel with Leticia Barr (founder of Tech Savvy Mama) and her daughter, Emily this summer to meet Corning Women scientists, engineers and other innovators in Corning, New York AND will receive a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 to continue “learning through Gorilla Glass.” This trip is a very special look at the innovation that occurs in the Corning facilities.

Using Technology to Learn

Outside of the great apps like Lightbot Jr., Scratch and Brainpop, there are loads of mobile features that can be used to ignite a passion for STEM and make all learning more fun. Devices featuring tools like a camera, writing stylus and audio recording capabilities help to encourage an auditory, visual, and experiential approach to learning. The more learning modes that are exercised, the more likely the material will stay with you long-term.  For example, when my family visited the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, we were able to download interactive touch screen tours and maps on our devices. This greatly enriched our family’s experience and put our kids in the driver’s seat on what and how they wanted to learn.

My daughter has been using her tablet in school for her science unit on birds. Researching and taking photos on hikes make the learning process interactive and fun. Photographing the birds is their first step in documenting their research, and another great example of how using a mobile device both inside and outside the classroom can augment the learning experience.

Enter for a Chance to Win

To enter, parents can tweet their answer to this question, tagging @CorningGorilla, and use the hashtag #LearningThroughGorillaGlass

Full contest rules can be found here.

The Microsoft Surface Pro 4 is a fabulous educational tool for today’s generation of learners. It offers the versatility of a tablet and all the power of a laptop in a package that is beautiful, thin, and light. It uses Corning® Gorilla® Glass 4 cover glass, which can survive up to 80% of the time when dropped from 3 feet high. In laboratory tests, Gorilla Glass 4 proves 2x tougher than competitive glass designs, so it’s a desirable feature of laptops, tablets, and mobile phones that puts parents’ minds at ease when it comes to damage from drops that can occur while girls are learning.

Leticia Barr is the founder of Tech Savvy Mama, a site where she’s incorporated her experience as a parent and background as an educator to provide useful advice for families about technology since 2008. She dispenses advice via Twitter via @TechSavvyMama, shares her expertise as a contributor to Babble Tech, regularly contributes to other parenting sites, and is a sought-after panelist for technology, education, and social media conferences. Leticia enjoys the distinction of being among Babble’s Top 100 Mom Blogs and 50 Top Twitter Moms in 2011. She lives in the DC Metro area with her two children, husband, and their overly enthusiastic yellow Labrador. Despite blogging for Babble’s Tech channel, she prefers to unplug in favor of family time and digital wellness.

This blog post was sponsored by Corning Incorporated the opinions and text are all mine.