Joel
November 21st 03, 01:49 PM
I am a parent of 2 little girls and I started finding and using free
content on the Internet about 2 years ago, when the eldest was then 2
yrs. Of course, this was in a mediated format were my wife or myself
came between the content and our children. I then posted a message to
a mailing list that helped to result in a month long discussion that
is now the subject of an article in Young Children, the journal of the
National Association for the Education of Young Children.
>From these discussions it became clear that the 'educational
establishment' is divided on the issue as I know many parents are. I
think that most parents would agree that at some point in the
educational process technology must be introduced to our children as
this will be critical to their future working and studying needs, The
questions I find unanswered are the 'When' "How' or even 'If'.
To answer these questions I have combined with some technologists to
found a worldwide Internet based research project, that now has the
support of the National School Boards Association in the USA and a
program administered by a Faculty of Education at a UK University.
The project takes the form of a free play or assigned play for young
children, were they can use 1,000s of items of content and qualified
academic researchers can in a quantitive way understand the
effectiveness of the content.
I ask parents for their opinions on this, I believe, fundamental
question of introducing technology to children.
If they wish to be involved in the research project with their
children they can write to me or go directly to the site at
www.kindersite.org
Joel
content on the Internet about 2 years ago, when the eldest was then 2
yrs. Of course, this was in a mediated format were my wife or myself
came between the content and our children. I then posted a message to
a mailing list that helped to result in a month long discussion that
is now the subject of an article in Young Children, the journal of the
National Association for the Education of Young Children.
>From these discussions it became clear that the 'educational
establishment' is divided on the issue as I know many parents are. I
think that most parents would agree that at some point in the
educational process technology must be introduced to our children as
this will be critical to their future working and studying needs, The
questions I find unanswered are the 'When' "How' or even 'If'.
To answer these questions I have combined with some technologists to
found a worldwide Internet based research project, that now has the
support of the National School Boards Association in the USA and a
program administered by a Faculty of Education at a UK University.
The project takes the form of a free play or assigned play for young
children, were they can use 1,000s of items of content and qualified
academic researchers can in a quantitive way understand the
effectiveness of the content.
I ask parents for their opinions on this, I believe, fundamental
question of introducing technology to children.
If they wish to be involved in the research project with their
children they can write to me or go directly to the site at
www.kindersite.org
Joel