As a parent, it's easy to be negative about school children using technology. There's the old charge that it creates a generation that can't add without a calculator, and can't string a sentence together without scanning it through a spell-checker.
Parents can play an important role in helping their children succeed in school, but they need an effective approach in order to do this well. If you show interest and give support early on, it will encourage your child to develop positive attitudes to learning, in and out of school.
At homework time, the computer can be used to:
- Research a topic for a school project
- Find images and clip art for a school report
- Find help on a maths problem
- Check a grammar question
- Make online or printable flash cards for practising spelling and vocabulary words
- Understand a science concept or find ideas for a science project
- Look up a definition or find a word in a thesaurus
A home computer with Internet access offers real advantages for learners of all ages allowing children to improve their technology skills, provide more options for what they learn and how they learn it but most importantly, it makes learning more fun and interactive!
For further information and case studies on the benefits of technology in homework, and learning generally, visit the Next Generation Learning website.