Our elementary tech team is hosting two informational events for parents in the month of September:
21st Century Literacy Coffee Mornings at The Hub
Calling all parents! Wondering what your child is doing at school with technology? Feeling like they are on technology fast forward and wondering how to catch up? Looking for a place to discuss these issues and learn more about the exciting new tools your children are using in school? Join your ES Tech Team in the Learning Hub Technology Zone for our new 21st Century Literacy Coffee Mornings! The sessions will run once a month on Wednesday mornings at 7:30, starting on September 19th! Coffee and snacks generously provided by our PTA.
What: An open session to learn more about what your child is doing at school with technology
When: Wednesday, September 19th 7:30 – 8:30
Where: The Learning Hub Technology Zone
PTA Meeting Presentation: Introducing Technology at the ES!
Don’t miss this parent meeting: Everything you want to know but are afraid to ask about the technology movement!!! What is happening in your child’s classroom with technology? How is the computer used to access information and how is it used safely? What does 21st Century Literacy mean to your child? How has the computer become a tool in the classroom? Think your child is surfing the web in the ES–think again!! What is a blog — your child knows! Come to this exciting meeting presented to you by the ES Tech Department!
What: A presentation introducing parents to the exciting technology developments at the ES
When: Thursday, September 27th from 9:30 – 10:30
Where: ES MPB
We hope to see you there!
Entries (RSS)
September 19th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Many thanks to Kim, Justin, Struan and Annelies for hosting today’s tech talk. The movie was a great way to remind us of (or teach us for the first time!) how quickly the world is growing, and that the pace of technology development is so rapid-fire that we need to catch on and ride along with it if we want to be able to use it to affect change in the world. The group raised many questions: how do we keep kids safe online? how do we find a healthy balance between computer time and the rest of the real world outside the window? how can we learn to pick through the garbage on the internet to find “good” information? how do we all, kids and parents alike, learn to stay focused when at the computer, to make the best use of our time there? I am looking forward to learning answers to these and many other questions that were raised at the session.
Special thanks to Kim for sharing her real-life story of her Monday morning with us. What an eye-opener! And thanks, too, for posing the question to us: “If this is what my Monday morning looks like to me today, what will it look like for your children when they are my age?” Wow! and Yikes!
Although I have not reached the same level of “geekdom” as our experts, Kim and Justin, I do have enough knowledge of computers and the internet to know that the internet can be a scary place for kids and adults. Just as we tell kids to wear their helmets, eat their veggies, and do their homework, we should also have enough information to set appropriate rules and parameters for them when they sit down to use the computers at home and at school. http://www.netsmartz.org and http://www.netsmartz411.org are two great places for parents, kids and teens to learn about the internet and how to keep kids safe online. It even has a place where you can become cool like your kids and learn what acronyms like INBD and TTYL mean!
There are also different camps on whether filters should be used for the internet or not. Internet safety sources make many recommendations for parents on how to make sure kids are using the computer and internet safely, such as putting the computer in a common area and adding filters or monitoring software. I use NetNanny at home http://www.contentwatch.com so my kids are prevented from stumbilng across sites that I don’t want them to visit. Adding filters at home was a personal decision, but it would be great if the school could direct parents to trusted resources and tools that can be used at home.
Speaking of using computers at home, how about helping us find resources on good places to buy computers, ways to get student discounts from providers, and agencies or folks who can help come to a house to set up and maintain the computers for those of us who don’t know our hard drives from our memory boards?
I look forward to checking back on other comments soon, and learning along with everyone at future meetings and on this and other blogs.
September 24th, 2007 at 10:05 am
This was a fantastic hour spent learning from the experts! Kim and Justin, you did a wonderful job getting the message to the many tech NO moms. The tech train left the station and I am still standing on the platform…
Looking forward to hearning more about how my kids are learning and using the tech tools.
Please continue to KISS (Keep It Simple S…)