Raising Digital Children with David Parmet at BlogOrlando

Now liveblogging the Education session at BlogOrlando. Title is Raising Digital Children. David kicked off with this video on youtube, which also reminds me of this video. Both are must watch TV if you're willing to be woken up to the new reality.

First point is that jobs we have today, most did not exist when we were in school. How have schools retooled to deal with this. What are they doing to prepare children for jobs of tomorrow. Also just added that children need unstructured time, time to be bored, and explore on their own.

Discussing The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30) and the disconnect between teaching styles and the millenial generation. We have the tools (computers, projectors, etc) in the classroom now, or most schools do. But we're not utilizing them.

There is a split in families that are digitally aware and those who aren't. The "aren't" group includes families that don't have or use a computer, let alone email, myspace, or other social media. To me as a parent, this means the responsibility is on my to do this work at home. So a course for parents, perhaps with scholarships, would be great for every community.

It comes down to developing critical thinking in the child. Parental supervision (or at least parental direction) is key, of course. Everything else is just a tool.

David's Guidelines:

• Turn off the TV - David gives his kids just 1/2 a day.
• Leave the iPhone at home - set a good example for the kids when you're on family time.
• Keep track of what you're doing - you have to plan and report back on your home schooling. You'll be surprised how many experiences you have that are educational.
• Give them freedome but don'w tbe afraid to keep an eye on what they're doing - keep computer in public spaces, etc.

Thanks to David for the great session. Visit delicious.com/dparmet/homeschooling for his links.