Introducing Digital Learning Home School

It’s a new school year.  Time to shake things up and start a new On Living By Learning Weekly Feature: Digital Learning Home School.

Like me, many parents are looking for ways to include digital learning at home.

You’d think this would be easy since we’re raising digital natives - children who are growing up in a world where they are surrounded by digital technology such as computers, the Internet, cell phones, and Ipods.

And yet, the emerging technology is so new that educators, who are still digital immigrants, have few road maps.

One source of useful guidelines is the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) program that is part of ISTE, the International Society for Technology in Education.

Their Profiles for Technology Literate Students lists samples of age-leveled learning activities that correlate to a framework of Educational Technology Standards.

Over the next year, I’ll be implementing these ideas, and many more, as I work with my home schooled 3rd Grade son, my Middle School daughter, and our Teen Level Girl Scouts.

Hopefully, our practical experience will inspire you to share digital learning with the Digital Natives (and immigrants) in your life.

Digital Learning Home School This Week

Grades 3-5 (Ages 8-11):

Email - Last year, I helped Alex set up his Email account on Yahoo.  I’ve been using Yahoo Mail for over ten years, so I chose it due to familiarity.  If not, I might have set him up on Google Mail, another easy Email provider that is touted as being tough on spam.

I still log onto his Email account regularly to empty his Spam folder, and to check on his Inbox.  I’ve also set up his Contact list so that he can easily send Emails to a pre-approved list.

This week, I typed his dictated Birthday Thank You Emails since he doesn’t have the keyboarding speed to tackle big projects.

Keyboarding - Alex is slowly working his way through the keyboarding lessons in Jumpstart Typing.  Very, very slowly.

Since he took a break over the summer, his speed and accuracy has suffered dramatically.  Now, I’m insisting on daily practice, but he alternates with another typing program that he likes, Type To Learn 3.

LibraryThing - Alex reviewed Diary Of A Wimpy Kid on his LibraryThing account.  At first, I had to push him to write reviews as a way to remember and record the books he had read.  However, once he discovered that he could earn money for his reviews, his whole attitude changed.

Now, if his readers click on the LibraryThing images on his blog sidebar and make a purchase, Alex will earn a percentage of the total.

The kids and I share an Amazon Associates account, but we haven’t earned enough to receive a check yet.  Still, it’s a powerful motivator.

Word 2003 - Although we’ve used this word processing program in the past for dictated assignments, it’s time for Alex to learn to use it for himself.  This week, we used Word to create a Spelling Practice document.

First, we practiced saving files.  I showed Alex that you could save by clicking on the Diskette button, or you can find the Save option under file.  Since we were saving the document for the first time, we also had the option to save it to a particular location, in this case, the Alex Folder.

Next, we reviewed the alignment Toolbar buttons as we used the Right Alignment button to insert the date.  The title went into the center, and everything else is left aligned.

And, for the highlight of this lesson, we introduced the use of Tables for sorting Long A Spelling Words.

• Type the list of Long A Spelling Words from Weekly Word Sorts That Build Spelling Skills Grades 2-3 in a column.
• Select Insert Tables feature to set up a table with 2 columns, and 5 rows.
• Highlight (click and hold as you drag the cursor) the first row, and select the Center Alignment button.  The rest will remain Left Aligned.
• Type the Headers in the first row: a_e words, ai words.
• Go back to the first word in the list, highlight it (click on the first letter, and hold as you drag the cursor across the word), right-click your mouse, select copy.  Go back to the cell in the appropriate column, and paste your selection.

By the way, Alex was already familiar with Highlight,Copy & Paste Paste.  It’s one of his favorite tricks for eliminating any unnecessary writing from his life.

Home School Online: Main Idea -  As part of his Language Arts work, I asked Alex to run a Google Search on “Main Idea.”  He found two sites with activities that weren’t “too boring.”

• What’s The Big Idea? - From Harcourt School Publishers.
• Identify Main Idea - Independent resource for New York State test practice.

Spore - Oh, yes.  Alex has fallen into the Spore zone.  We picked up the Spore Galactic Edition at Target, and Alex has been busy figuring out the game on his own.

I could’ve saved a few bucks by just buying the Spore DVD-ROM, but the Galactic Edition includes: the ‘Making of Spore’ DVD video, the National Geographic DVD video on ‘How to Build a Better Being’, ‘The Art of Spore’ book, and a handbook to the game.

Even with all that, we also picked the Spore Official Game Guide.  This alien life simulation game is just that complex.

In a previous post, I asked, “Should I Put Spore on our IHIP?” The answer is a definite, YES!

Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-14)

Fortunately, by the time the kids are in Middle School, you don’t have to spend as much time monitoring, reviewing, and suggesting technology resources.

Last year, I introduced Kayla to blogging online on Blogger.  She, in turn, persuaded several friends to start their own blogs.  These Middle Schoolers then figured out how to customize their blogs using Pyzam.

Over the summer, I helped my daughter set up her own self-hosted Wordpress blog.  It’s a work-in-progress.  She is still discovering what it is that she wants to write about, and sometimes I have to remind her to post an article.

As a mom, I think the most difficult part of digital learning with older children is letting go.  Letting them make small mistakes, but protecting them as necessary.  So, I try not to make too many suggestions regarding her blog.

This week she surprised me by discovering and reviewing the Quick Screen Capture program.  Her article could use some polish, but I was impressed nevertheless.  And, I won’t be surprised to find out that her friends will soon be using screen capture programs.

Digital Learning Pay-Off

I’m beginning to see the pay-off to all the work we’ve done exposing the kids to Technology Resources.  Sharing digital learning resources, I’m inspiring my children to be the creators of online media.  They, in turn, are inspiring their circle of friends.

Over time, we’re raising Digital Natives who will change the world.

Related Articles on Digital Learning:

Home School educators are ahead of the curve as We’re Not Waiting For 21st Century Learning.

Is Your Child Computer Literate? - Kids are not learning technology skills at school, but they can learn at home.

Who Is Optimizing Their Reading Potential? - Using RSS Feed Readers.

Reading On The Road - Discuss an audiobook on a road trip.

Thisissand.com - Easy to elaborate virtual sand art projects.

Moodstream: Create a soundboard using images, music, and film footage that fits your mood.

Zipcode Zoo - Identify the flora and fauna in any area, and learn lots about animals.

Green Dimes - Stop unwanted junk mail and share ways to “green up” our world.

Kids Cooking Activities - Ideas and resources to inspire budding chefs.

Wordle - Turn your words into a work of art

Animoto - Create a music video with your photos.

Instructables - Discover instructions for all kinds of projects - from recipes to robots - or post your own.

Mr. Picassohead - Unleash your inner abstract artist.

Hulu - Watch a movie or catch up on your favorite TV shows on your computer. See the good movies on Hulu list.

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Tagged as: Digital native, Middle School, Word 2003, Yahoo Mail