It started innocuously enough with the back-to-school supply list for 5th Grade. It had only one item – a USB flash drive. “What a great idea,” I thought. “Ruby could transfer homework back and forth between home and school computers and, unless we inherited a dog like Marley, the classic ‘dog ate my homework’ excuse could never apply.”
As an aside, buying a flash drive is not as simple as it seems since – for a 10-year old - having a cool one is critical so here’s a site to help you out: http://www.mimoco.com.
One thing led to another and soon she was dominating the home computer. Not only was she required to do most of her homework on it – honing her skills on Typing Pal, creating projects in PowerPoint, researching online – but soon all her homework assignments were posted on the school’s intranet. Along the way, her dad and I relented and bought her a laptop.
The trend has accelerated at a furious pace. Now, in 6th Grade she participates in online homework forums with her classmates; they post book reviews, blog about their poetry assignments and - kids being kids - pass around gags and joke emails.
I’ve also noticed that Ruby has started collaborating on homework assignments with friends via Skype videoconference – a technique apparently even David Beckham has adopted.
'Despite currently living in Italy - where he is on loan to AC Milan from his regular team Los Angeles Galaxy - the soccer ace is still helping wife Victoria with their children via the internet videophone service. “I am really struggling with the homework here and I have so much going on at the house”,’ Posh told Absolute Now website. ‘So I sat Brooklyn down in front of the computer and they Skyped for 20 minutes.’
I constantly read about the downside of all this online activity – the usual lament that kids today don’t know how to spell, write or think — so I spoke to a school principal about it. She’s optimistic about the impact of technology and believes that it’s creating a community of learners. She’s teaching an 8th Grade literature class and has seen that, now that the kids “discuss” the book in blog form after each lesson, they are less reliant on the teacher and more reliant on each other to stimulate and deepen the discussion.
And her advice on Skype – if it helps there’s no harm. According to Ruby – it makes homework more fun. And there’s certainly no harm in that.
As an aside, buying a flash drive is not as simple as it seems since – for a 10-year old - having a cool one is critical so here’s a site to help you out: http://www.mimoco.com.
One thing led to another and soon she was dominating the home computer. Not only was she required to do most of her homework on it – honing her skills on Typing Pal, creating projects in PowerPoint, researching online – but soon all her homework assignments were posted on the school’s intranet. Along the way, her dad and I relented and bought her a laptop.
The trend has accelerated at a furious pace. Now, in 6th Grade she participates in online homework forums with her classmates; they post book reviews, blog about their poetry assignments and - kids being kids - pass around gags and joke emails.
I’ve also noticed that Ruby has started collaborating on homework assignments with friends via Skype videoconference – a technique apparently even David Beckham has adopted.
'Despite currently living in Italy - where he is on loan to AC Milan from his regular team Los Angeles Galaxy - the soccer ace is still helping wife Victoria with their children via the internet videophone service. “I am really struggling with the homework here and I have so much going on at the house”,’ Posh told Absolute Now website. ‘So I sat Brooklyn down in front of the computer and they Skyped for 20 minutes.’
I constantly read about the downside of all this online activity – the usual lament that kids today don’t know how to spell, write or think — so I spoke to a school principal about it. She’s optimistic about the impact of technology and believes that it’s creating a community of learners. She’s teaching an 8th Grade literature class and has seen that, now that the kids “discuss” the book in blog form after each lesson, they are less reliant on the teacher and more reliant on each other to stimulate and deepen the discussion.
And her advice on Skype – if it helps there’s no harm. According to Ruby – it makes homework more fun. And there’s certainly no harm in that.
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