Many homeschool curriculum providers know that technology is exploding quickly. Just this morning Ken Ham posted a blog entitled 'Keeping Up with Technology'. He posted, "AiG and our publisher Master Books have been working hard so we can eventually provide all our books in electronic format and also have all our videos available for download." Sonlight curriculum also recently posted a blog entitled, "Autoblot: The Electronic Future. They too are aware of the "electronic future" that is coming.
Then there is the ease of information that is free or cheap. Whole homeschooling curriculum has been planned and organized from preschool through twelfth grade using mainly public domain resources. An Old Fashioned Education and Ambleside Online are nearly free. The main cost may be printing out books or buying a quality e-reader, and possibly purchasing a math, science or updated history text here or there.
Other curriculum companies may charge for the access to all public domain texts compiled together, but even then the fees are very affordable considering how much material has been provided. Dollar Homeschool's Eclectic Education Series, A2 Homeschool Curriculum, The Robinson Curriculum all have many great historical works from mainly public domain texts compiled together to make an impressive curriculum for any family. These companies have added materials that they have developed to complement the public domain texts in the form of worksheets, study aids, and tests.
E-books have taken curriculum and homeschooling by storm. It is becoming easier than ever to buy, or even just sample, a curriculum quickly. Heart of Wisdom, Currclick,Amanda Bennet Unit Studies, Five In A Row, Simply Charlotte Mason and many other companies have wonderful downloads for instant e-books, unit studies, and curriculum. Many of these downloads save quite a bit of space since they can be read in an e-reader. If they need printed, often you only need to print a little at a time or just the pages that you want, such as worksheets or project plans.
It is becoming more and more simple to design your own homeschool to cover areas that are important in your family or that covers a special interest your child has. It's also very fast with downloadable materials. My daughter LOVES missions. A surprise free, downloadable curriculum that looks absolutely amazing is Teaching with God's Heart for the World from Harvest Ministry, which centers on Missions. Youth With A Mission (YWAM Publishing) is making more of their titles available in e-book format both for the Kindle (Amazon). Christianbook also has a growing library of e-books for purchase.
Libraries have jumped on the technology bandwagon too. Many now are equipped to check out e-books to patrons. I was pleasantly surprised when my little town library, that serves only a few hundred people, recently added e-book checkouts. No more late fees with this technology. When your time is up, the book is gone from your reader.
Another point of interest for me has been the use of Apps. I don't have a Smartphone. I haven't had access to the wide world of applications that can be downloaded to a phone or electronic device until I bought my Nook Color. I assumed the apps were mostly for things like games. Oh, I knew there were Bible apps... which I have secretly drooled over. I really had no clue about the educational apps available. Preschool games, phonics lessons, math games and flashcards, foreign language lessons, helps for AP tests for high school... There really almost is an app for everything. While most cost, the prices were surprisingly affordable considering my preconceived notions. While playing with electronic media for hours probably isn't the best use of a child's time, even for education, it is an interesting supplement in small doses if it complements how your child learns. I am very careful at this point, despite my growing love for technology, about my children being over-exposed or thinking all learning has to be 'entertaining'.
Technology is playing a large part in many homeschooling homes. Blogs are filled with posts about technology and how it is playing a part in their lives and education. Whether it is a post about educational apps or how fast children learn to use the technology, I see a lot of homeschoolers chatting about and using new technology to their advantage. Articles have been written to assist homeschooling mothers about the ease and benefits of utilizing the new technology in homeschooling.
We are developing a nice mix in our home of electronic books and regular, paper books. Personally, while I love the ease of e-books, I still love regular books too. I wonder how all this technology will change education, whether at home or in the schools. Information is easier and easier to come by. No longer to we necessarily need to go to a school to have access to the information. Even many colleges offer degree programs and video tutorials online. My older daughters have taken online college courses. Some classes are easier than others when done this way, but it is doable. And my younger daughter has taken quite a few virtual tours for homeschooling.
I see curriculum companies having to adjust as information technology becomes more and more available and in demand. I also see, however, that parents need to be vigilant in watching over their children and their education. Having a machine read to your child will never be the same as snuggling on the couch, reading to your child yourself. A virtual tour of a museum will never be as educational as going yourself, seeing with your own eyes. There is also a charm about a paper book, sitting on the family shelf for years, having been read to all your children. No e-book will replace a couple of the books that I have, with my child's name scrawled in second grade handwriting in the front cover, that she read repeatedly a dozen years ago. There are memories there for both of us. It makes me kind of sad to think, despite all the advances, that some things like that might disappear eventually.
I am embracing the new world being opened by technology... but still trying to keep a foot in both worlds. Ironically, one of the main reasons I first looked into an e-reader was to download the free, older, public domain texts without having to print off the books. There is something about reading an old McGuffey reader, written in the 1800s, with an e-reader, that brings both worlds clashing into one another. It seems that trying to instill a sense of history and old fashioned values in my children can happen with modern technology.
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