s/o homeschooling with the Bible, a math book, and a library card

[Artichoke]

While discussing whether or not one could truly homeschool with only the Bible, a math book, and a library card; the necessity of the internet and tech skills came up.

 

 Here's the question it led to:  Can an individual be considered well-educated if he/she does not possess a relevant education?   

 

Based on the original thread, I think the relevancy question is directly based on tech skills.  Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. 

 

 

Here's Lucy Stoner's post that led to the question:  (sorry for the strange formatting!) 

 

My child knows the dewey decimal system.  There are a few kinks in that approach.  It does, for instance, limit you to what is checked in at any given moment and what belongs to that branch.  More than 1/2 of the books he gets from the library are hold requests from other libraries made online at the library.  

 

In 2002, I transferred colleges to a state school and the process was all online with paper heavily discouraged.  That was 14 full years ago.  Paper college applications are going to go the way of the dodo bird. The first step for "how to apply" on many colleges websites is "create an account at..."  Plus many programs expect incoming students to have advanced internet research skills and, increasing, coding skills.

 

In today's world, I think necessary tech skills exceed using the internet.  That's like the first tiny thing to cross off the list.  A child who is 6 or 7 now and who just starts using the internet as a young adult will be at a significant disadvantage to kids who have been programming since they were 6 or 7.  It's akin to the skill gap between an adult playing a video game for the first time and a kid who has been playing a bit every day for years. I learned to use the internet when I was 16.  My 12 year old son has computer skills which far surpass mine in college as I wasn't really native to digital technology.  His skills surpass his 13 year old cousin who grew up without a functional computer in the home most of the time...which recently came up when she was stymied with an online application and he was showing her how to upload her essay and also when they took a 3D design class.  

 

 

 

If your kids are in college now, what they needed to know to get into school was different than what will likely be required for kids just starting their primary education now. There's a big, and growing, gap between how a person born in 1995 and a person born in 2010 will need to use technology to obtain a college education.  This pattern will continue to hold for future decades.  

 

Increasingly software programs for both work and education are web based apps or require the web to be able to use the program and the programs are more intuitive to students who have used many different sorts of programs. If you are learning to navigate and use those programs while your co-workers or classmates are using them to get their work done, you will be a significant disadvantage.  Ask anyone who's ever trained a new grad for any job requiring technology...you can quickly tell the difference between the tech savvy and those who are not.  

 

Yes, one can get an education without the internet.  Can they get the education most relevant for students now without the internet?  And without a lot more than just using the internet?  I don't think so.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jean in Newcastle]

In my opinion, part of being well-educated means knowing how to get answers.  So while I don't think that tech is the exclusive way to get answers, I do think that in today's world it is a much more efficient way to do research.  I also think that old school ways of finding information is valuable and necessary too.

 

Another part of being well-educated, in my opinion, is knowing how to write and compile information in a way that gets your message across.  Technology again makes that so much more efficient.