Technology moves so quickly it’s hard to keep up. Smart phones, Facebook, iPads, Twitter. Sometimes it’s tempting to get overwhelmed, stick our heads in the sand and declare that we just aren’t going to get with it. When my son, now 14, was 4 years old we were on the phone with Grammy and she mentioned something about the Grand Canyon to him. “Do you know what the Grand Canyon is?” she asked him. “No, but I know where I can find out- www.grandcanyon.com!” This was in 2001. I can’t imagine what the average four year old knows now. The information age has completely leveled the educational playing field as far as knowledge acquisition goes. If your 10 year old wants to, he can take open college classes from professors at Harvard, Stanford, Yale, MIT and countless others in just about any subject.
The Internet was made for lifelong, self-motivated learners, which is what many homeschoolers are. It has shrunk the world down into a global classroom. Home schools can and should be utilizing technology as much or more than traditional schools. Things are only going to move ahead. Technology will never regress. You’re on the information superhighway and there are no exits. There’s never been a better time to incorporate technology into your classroom.
How can you do this? I thought you’d never ask. I just happen to have 10 ideas.
1. Buy a keyboarding program or use the free BBC Dancemat Typing online and teach your kids to type correctly as early as possible. Like in kindergarten. Almost everything they do (written) for the rest of their lives will be digital. Sure, they can hunt and peck like you do, and they’ll have to learn to text with two thumbs too, but teaching them to type with all ten fingers will be a great gift.
2. Elementary school age children should type, print and turn in compositions at least once every other week. This gives them practice typing, formatting, using word processing programs and printing. Middle and High School age children should type all compositions and research papers and should send an electronic copy to you via e-mail or upload it to a school wiki. (I’ll write another post on school wikis). You should give certain assignments that have time/date stamp deadlines. This means that the assignment has to be uploaded to the wiki or in your e-mail inbox by 1200 on September 16th or it’s late and has points taken off. That’s real life. It feels funny at first saying “Have you e-mailed me your paper?” when they are sitting right next to you but it helps keep everyone on schedule. They should also be cranking out Excel charts and Power Point presentations on a regular basis.
3. Assign video reports and other digital media reports. There are tons of resources for teaching basic film production skills. Heck, your kids can probably figure this one out all by themselves as well. We use iMovie, Glogster and Animoto for education. If you’re comfortable, post them to You Tube or their blog.
4. Start a school blog. Thursdays are "Blog and Log" at our house. (More about logging later.) We have a private blog site that is password protected because we’re not ready for them to have an internet presence right now. They can share the password with friends and family but no one else sees it. They blog about whatever they want to. A few times, I’ve assigned topics, but life is exciting. There’s always something to blog about. This is the modern equivalent of a creative writing journal. It doesn’t have to be perfect or profound. Just write.
5. Use online quizzing and flash card sites. I like Quia and Quizlet. You can make your own flashcards or find ones that others have already made, develop tests, games and quizzes. I recently found Rosetta Stone Spanish vocabulary flashcards ready made so I didn'thave to reinvent the wheel.
6. Take online classes. We’ve enjoyed Veritas Scholars Academy. My son’s classmates are from Australia, Tajikistan, Philippines, Florida, Hawaii, Pennsylvania and a fabulous teacher in California. The kids in these types of classes are all extremely bright, articulate and self motivated. (You have to be to be taking a Literature class from 9:00 pm-10:30!) Flat world.
7. Set up a school wiki. We use the free wikispaces for education. You can establish a private wiki where you can compile text, images, files, movies and more. Wikis are easy to set up. There are tutorials on the website.
8. Utilize online math tutorials and practice sites. We really like IXL. It is a subscription site and I assign extra practice problems that correspond with their regular curriculum. The site is fun and assures mastery of the concept before they can go further. They just added Algebra.
9. Use online videos and teaching tools like Khan Academy and You Tube (with caution) to reinforce concepts. We have had hours of entertaining science fun watching vintage Julius Sumner Miller explain physics concepts. Google him. He’s a gem.
10. Use Skype to interview someone. Everyone has Skype- right? Arrange an interview with an expert to learn about whatever you are studying right now.
Well, that should keep you busy until my next post. Welcome to the 21st century. Get with it.
great post Drew! Glad I found your blog! :)
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