Tech savvy parent with a child in a low tech school

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Permalink Reply by Dean Groom on December 16, 2008 at 3:30am

she will be tech savvy, you are assuming that her learning takes place in one location and for fixed times. Let her explore her passions, include her in your passions - I'm not about to leave the most critical part of my kids' development to edumactors.

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Permalink Reply by Vincent on December 16, 2008 at 9:06pm

tech savvy, but with razor sharp critical thinking, right :0

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Permalink Reply by Christine King on December 16, 2008 at 6:47am

I have a similar situation. I do a lot of things with her at home. She is 7 and I am going to get her and a classmate who live nearby to begin doing a podcast. When they feel comfortable with it, I will share what they have created with her teacher. Her teacher is receptive, but inexperienced and would love any help she can get.

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Permalink Reply by James Gilman on December 16, 2008 at 7:47pm

Great topic. I am not a teacher, just a parent and a small town official. I have watched over the past several years educational resources slowly degrade and the student teacher ratio expand. Having been in technology myself for the last 25 years I have seen entire how technology has transformed business. It is hard to find a business that has not been transformed after implementing technology. Education is one area that has not been transformed. Teachers have not embraced technology as a way for them to leverage their own skills. I see e-learning as a way to leverage the teachers time and skills.

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Permalink Reply by meL on December 17, 2008 at 5:06am

So true about education not embracing technology. A colleague read a book a few years ago that addressed this - mentioned that in many professions a person from 100 years ago would be lost (think about surgery, what would a surgeon from the late 1800s/early 1900s think about today's operating room). However, a teacher from the late 1800s/early 1900s could walk in today's classroom and be perfectly comfortable - we still have chalkboards (okay, many now use markers instead of chalk), texts in book form, pencils and paper. This teacher could hit the ground running in most classrooms.
I also read a report not too long ago that of the 155 fields studied as far as technology use was concerned, education fell in the bottom third, behind logging, farming, etc.

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Cronk on December 17, 2008 at 4:39am

I would start by having her use Voicethread, it is really easy to use and she could publish reports and get comments from others.

You may also want to start a NING for digital citizenship among younger kids, Like the Digiteen Ning

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Permalink Reply by meL on December 30, 2008 at 12:57pm

She will be in this school until she graduates high school...I am talking the whole shebang here - not so much the actual hardware/software, she will get that both at home and at school. I am thinking more big picture. I want her to be not only literate, but savvy as well. How to find what she needs, how to create what she needs, etc. I figure most of this will have to come from home as I would wager the lower/middle school tech teacher (someone I used to work with occasionally) doesn't incorporate many (if any) of the tools that have been mentioned in this discussion. Sure, my daughter learns how to use Word (fonts, colors, etc.), KidPix, various computer games and I know the teacher will add Excel, PowerPoint and probably Access - but to me, that is the very minimum. There is more to life than Microsoft Office (I intend to introduce her to OpenOffice soon). The upper school tech teacher does ahve students do some fairly creative projects, but again I assume without many of the tools discussed here.

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