Online Learning: Talking Back to Teacher - Videoconferencing for Home-Schools
You might remember the early days of the Internet where people were still wary, but it was clear that the educational potential of such a tool was massive indeed. The Internet has now proved its place in home-schooling and home-school education, and now there is a new technology that promises to take the home-schooling experience to another level once more.
Videoconferencing is a tool which allows children and teachers to interact through a visual medium, for lessons to be presented in much more interesting ways than they may have been before, and for experts to present information to children directly. This is something that could previously only be experienced on a field trip or class visit, something that tends to be rather rare in home-schooling.
The ability to bring an expert into your home, whether it is a teacher well qualified in some aspect of science or mathematics, or perhaps an expert your child admires, is one that really is irreplaceable. Mom and Dad can do so much for their children's education, but sometimes a professional touch can go a long way indeed.
Unlike educational or instructional videos, videoconferencing gives the child a chance to interact with the teacher, which often results in increased learning in much more enjoyable fashion. Questioning experts and teachers makes for a memorable experience and better retention of information than having to look the information up in a book. Often they will be able to pick up additional nuggets of information not available elsewhere.
Videoconferencing also allows access to resources that might otherwise be inaccessible due to prohibitive cost or location. To set up videoconferencing facilities, parents who home-school will need to invest in a camera and cable modem. A cable modem is standard in many homes across the country already. It can be a viable home-school tool in itself, simply because of the blazingly fast access it gives children to a huge wealth of information.
Seeing a professional teacher teach over video conference may also give home-schooling parents some good tips on how to better impart information to their children and aid their learning.
While this is still a relatively new technology, it seems very likely indeed that videoconferencing will one day become a standard part of the home-schooling package, and it is worth keeping your eye on this evolving technology which has the capacity to boost your child's learning beyond what was previously possible.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling parent, author, children's rights advocate, and Founder and C.E.O. of Learning by Grace, Inc. She and her husband of almost 3 decades reside with their 8 children in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Rothschild co-founded Learning By Grace, Inc. because "our current system of education has broken its promise..." Learning By Grace, Inc. delivers Internet-based multimedia education to PreK-12 children in the United States and throughout the world.
Rothschild has authored a number of books about education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Home Education News Blog contains feature stories on alternatives in education.
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