Parental Engagment in the 21st Century

Recently I listed to a podcast through the K-12 online conference site. It was entitled Parental Engagement in the 21st Century. If you follow the link below, it takes you directly to the audio.

Parental Engagement in the 21st Century - Leveraging web 2.0 tools to engage parents in non-traditional ways by Lorna Costantini and Matt Montagne

The conference is in reference to parents and how they are currently living in a 1.0 world. You really can't blame them though because they grew up in that world. The point is...their lack of knowledge opens the door for their children to get into trouble using the new tools. Parents did not grow up online nor do they understand the social networking of it all. They need to be "trained" on how to use the tools and educate their children on the dangers of them. Digital networking is common to the children of today. Many of the children are even "writing" more out of school than they are in school settings.

So the question is....How can we as parents and teachers support are children in using these tools effectively and encourage the educational aspects of online activities? The online conference provides parents and teachers with answers to this question. It provides ideas for parents to use in the home and teachers to use at school. Parents and teachers can learn the educational value of social networking and other 2.0 tools. Not only does the information in this conference help close the gap between the "digital divide" of children and adults, but it also helps adults understand the educational value of these tools as well as safety precautions for using them in home and/or school settings.

I would encourage any parent and teacher to listen to this conference to fully understand the Internet "tools" of today and how to use them effectively.