Techie Homeschoolers

There is a lot of talk these days about whether or not the internet is safe for our kids. I think this is a valid discussion and has its place in education.  We definitely need to keep our kids safe online.

But there is a flipside…

If we become too stringent on keeping our kids totally away from the dangers of the internet, we may neglect to introduce them to the wonderful educational opportunities that are available.  These opportunities  may include online educational games, math drills, news for kids, podcasts of classical books -and for our older children, courses on how to use multimedia- such as designing websites, creatively podcasting, and even enriching their online experience even more through keeping a weblog.  That’s not to mention the variety of college level courses offered by universities such as MIT, which are absolutely FREE.  Our kids are living in an age when they can not only be a consumer of online media, but can also be creators.

I don’t think this is the time to passively let these opportunities slip by us.  As homeschoolers, we can use this digital era in history to our advantage- capitalizing on all the GOOD that the web has to offer our students.

There was a study conducted by Yahoo which indicated technology online is actually helping kids and families – keeping families connected and helping kids with homework, etc.  To directly quote:

The learning channels. As for the purpose of the time spent with technology, parents pointed to beneficial uses such as access to news and information. More than half (56%) said the Internet has helped children with schoolwork, and nearly two thirds (61%) said the Internet has “exposed my children to a broad range of cultures.”

That’s good news for homeschoolers.  Again, with all the dangers that ARE pervasive on the web, we need to begin looking for the positive factors involved in using online media in our home schools.

We don’t have to allow technology to control us - either through negatively impacting our families by taking up too much of our time, energy, and resources.  Examples of this are improper usage of Twitter, Facebook, and chat rooms.  If we spend too much time using social media it has the same demise as spending way too much time in front of the television screen, too much time on the phone, too much time at the coffee shop, too much time at the hair and nail salons…you name it.  ANYTHING can be controlling of our time, if we allow it too.  Same with technology.  Don’t be afraid of using it, but neither let it control your family.

Joe Uva says it best:

“It’s clear that within the ’43-hour day,’ families are making concerted efforts to spend time together and to live out a new family value that says ‘we control technology — it does not control us,’” said Joe Uva, president and CEO, OMD Worldwide.

Michele Madanski, Yahoo’s vice president of sales research had this to say about the idea of technology and how it impacts families:

“Father doesn’t always know best. He may not have a clue about what MP3 player is the best value, but daughter can be the expert because she has spent time online comparison shopping prices and features.”

And what does this mean for us home educating parents? It means that we can finally take a deep breath and relax, knowing that as our children have grasped the basics of the three R’s and are ready for more, they can learn to use technologies (with our supervision) and explore these things on their own. Before long, they will be teaching us!

Isn’t that what we want- children who are independent learners and can turn around and teach what they have discovered?

I know that’s what I’ve set out for.  I want to raise godly, independent children who are able to think and reason beyond the reach of my influence.  I want them to be empowered to conduct online research and creatively explore the opportunities for delivering a project in more ways than a 3 dimensional poster board.  I want them to tinker with ideas through collaboration with other kids (this can be done online on group projects with kids from around the globe, or in local homeschool co-ops).

Creativity, exploration, independent learning, group learning…all of this can be accomplished online for the homeschooler.

The internet is far from a perfect environment, but there are definitely things we parent teachers can do to ensure a much safer and meaningful online experience for our kids.

I’ll be covering these ideas in later posts…

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Techie Homeschooler wrote 34 articles on this blog.

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Tags: collaboration online, educational technology, homeschoolers and technology, Internet Safety, kids and technology, learning online

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