In our age, there are some disadvantages besides the advantages of fast developing technology. Not always being careful about the use of technology and parents has caused children to recognize technology very early. Early recognition with this technology actually has adverse effects on the child and can lead to developmental stresses due to technology dependency. There are many children who prefer to spend time with technological tools instead of communicating with each other or playing games. Parents also contribute by leaving this situation to the children and not communicating with them. Extreme technological but inactive life caused many children to be obese at very early ages. Our project aims to reduce the level of technological dependence and focuses on traditional outdoor games in order to encourage children to spend more time with their peers outside. Project partners will research traditional games and share them with each other. Through our project, lost and forgotten games will be re-emerged and there will be a wide variety of cultural exchanges between participating countries, which will lead to various game collections. Children learn and develop through games, so our goal is to teach children new games and encourage them to play these new games with their peers. Children learn the world through play. But technological life is far from exploring them. During the implementation phase of our project, children will play and socialize as well as explore. All partners will have equal responsibility for the planning and implementation of the project. Approximately 20 people will participate in every movement. Our primary goal is to keep children away from technology addiction and to offer children alternate activities to achieve this goal. We will teach them new and entertaining games and encourage them to spend more time with their peers. The time allocated for extracurricular activities will be increased in order to adapt to outdoor games and make the school environment more attractive to children. With these games, children who keep their time away from technological boundaries will learn to think and act freely and independently. The planning and implementation of adequate active games will be carried out in order to overcome life and be inactive and to encourage children to spore. We also aim to encourage parents, one of our target groups, to spend more time with their children because their children are tired due to their jobs, they can move away from the monotony of technological life and neglect their children. By including parents in the process of teaching and learning games, we aim to encourage children to teach their games in the school setting. When the project is implemented, books and brochures will be created that introduce the project and explain how to play traditional games. Each participating institution will distribute these books and brochures to schools in their own countries, encourage the project and contribute to the spread of the project.
Our project team came together with the concern that children’s technology addiction. There are many children who prefer to spend time with technological tools instead of communicating with each other or playing games. We had also observed in our schools that parents often use technology not in the best advantage for their children as it is an easy way to keep children busy and calm, it is like a babysitter in a way. Unfortunately even children younger than 3 years old are often exposed to technologies. Extreme technological but inactive life caused many children to be addicted at very early ages. We believe that conscious and balanced use of technology is becoming more and more important each year. Now at the end of the project, when many children all around the world learn virtually, we are satisfied that we chose this topic for the project. There are many advantages of using fast developing technologies but there are some disadvantages as well. It is important for adults, but even more important for children to use technologies in a conscious and balanced way. During the project each partner team created a booklet compiling ideas of how to help families and teachers to develop good habits of technology use and balanced life in general, we held meetings for teachers and parents on use of technology. We learned about the best ways to implement technologies with children. When during our eTwinning project children could not only see each other on the screen and talk but also create a collaborative picture, using computer, it was a successful way of using technologies. Use of photos, presentations, videos and virtual meetings, communication using whatsapp, twinspace and email was helping in implementation of our project goals. Sharing documents on google drive was an easy way to share documents and work collaboratively. Our project aimed to reduce the level of technological dependence by focusing on playing traditional games in order to encourage children to spend more time with their peers, to have fun, develop collaboration and motor skills as well as strengthen their communities. Project partners researched traditional games and shared them with each other. Through our project, lost and forgotten old games re-emerged in everyday school day of our educational institutions. There were a wide variety of cultural exchange between participating countries, which led to a rich game collection we published in an e-book of games. During the project children learned new games and developed through them, so our goal was achieved. Children learn about the world through play, but technological life is far from exploring real life. During the implementation of our project, children played and socialized inside and outside as well as explored nature. All partners had equal responsibility for the planning and implementation of the project. The time allocated for extracurricular activities was increased in order to include traditional games and make the school environment more attractive to children. New equipment was purchased and new game boards painted for outside use. Project mascots, developed by each team enriched the project in a playful way. Mascots not only traveled to other countries, but also had a small symbolic change in their outfit from the country visited. While playing traditional games, children learned to think and act freely and independently, to collaborate and solve problems. The planning and implementation of active games was carried out in order not to develop or overcome technology addiction. We also aim to encourage parents, As one of our target groups was parents, we encouraged them to spend more time with their children playing traditional games of own and other countries. We also found out that many games are quite similar and both children and adults enjoy playing them. To teach parents new and forgotten games, we included them in the process of teaching and learning games in the school setting. Each participating institution shared e-book of games and brochures on conscious and balanced use of technology with schools and teachers in their countries therefor spreading the idea of the project.