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Home-ed FAQ file, pt 2
Last modified: Thu Sep 8 19:21:49 1994
Changes since last version:
- a bit more commentary on ``what is unschooling?''
Index of questions:
-
Why do people choose to educate their children at home?
-
What is the difference between homeschooling and unschooling?
-
What are the regulations for homeschooling in my state?
How many days/hours are you required to teach?
At what age is my child required to attend school?
-
Where can I get textbooks for a relatively low cost?
- What about "socialization?"
-
Do public schools have to help us in any way?
-
How will I know what my child is expected to accomplish for any given grade?
-
What is the first step in educating our children at home?
-
How do home-schooled children compare to institutionally-schooled children?
-
What good references and resources exist on the net?
-
How do I find things on the Internet?
-
Aaron Falbel <falbel@media-lab.media.mit.edu> answers:
- "There are probably four major reasons why people choose to keep
their children out of school:
"1. Religious reasons -- people feel that schools do not address
the spiritual issues and values that they want to convey to their
children. In addition, schools do teach other ideas (e.g.
evolution) that are at odds with their religious beliefs.
"2. Schools are bad for kids -- These people also want to shield
their children from the harmful effects of school, but not
primarily due to their spiritual values. Often their children have
tried school and have had bad experiences there. These parents
have seen their children come home from school depressed, angry,
feeling stupid. In earlier years, these same children used to be
curious, energetic, and happy. Other times, parents don't even
wait for school to have such deleterious effects. They never send
their kids to school in the first place, knowing full well what
will be in store for them.
"3. Political beliefs -- Some people choose to homeschool because
of their political beliefs, which tend toward libertarian or
anarchist leanings. These people try to disengage themselves as
far as they can from institutions of all kinds that encroach on
their freedom. These families practice an ethic of self-reliance.
They are frequently rural, back-to-the-land types, and frown not
only upon schools, but also upon hospitals, prisons, the military,
large corporations, and in general, most of the systems and
institutions of industrial society.
"4. Close Family -- Some people homeschool simply because they like
their children too much to send them away on the school bus each
weekday morning. They enjoy the company of their children and
wouldn't dream of surrendering them over to some impersonal agency
and deprive them of what they feel in a close, loving, nurturing
atmosphere.
"Note well, however, that these group are by no means distinct.
There is considerable overlap among all four groups. There are
also, to be sure, some major differences."
- Alan Moses <alan@edstar.gse.ucsb.edu> adds:
- "I'd like to phrase an answer to this question in a positive sense,
without resorting to comparisons with school. In addition to the
religious, anti-school, political, and family reasons for
homeschooling, people homeschool for **educational** reasons;
namely that human beings learn best when they are following their
interests, that learning is a natural activity that is not
dependent on teaching, that learning is an activity that takes
place in the world and thus involves family and community as well
as the individual, and that homeschooling provides the best
environment to support this concept of learning."
- Rowan Hawthorne <rowan@sea.east.sun.com> shamelessly advertises:
- "If you are interested in child-centered learning, you might want
to try The Learning List. Write to learning-request@sea.east.sun.com
and ask for a copy of the charter."
- Alan Moses <alan@edstar.gse.ucsb.edu>:
- "As I understand the way the Growing Without Schooling crowd uses
the terms, unschooling refers more to the process of removing your
child from school and overcoming the negative effects of the
compulsory education process; homeschooling is the more general
term referring to home-based learning. I'd love to come up with a
better term than homeschooling, due to the implication that the
child is spending all their time at home (see my comments on
"socialization" below); but it's the best I've seen so far."
- Heather Millen <rpm1@cornell.edu>:
-
The process explained [above] could actually be considered
"de-schooling" rather than unschooling. Unschooling is child-led
learning in a home environment rather than duplicating school and
its curriculums at home. Most unschoolers don't follow lesson
plans, or even have "school learning" time structured into their
day. Subjects are covered when the child's interest dictates not
when the "educational experts" say its time for every child to
know that subject.
- David Mankins <dm@world.std.com>:
- Unschooling, for this unschooler, is based in the beliefs that
children:
- are incredible learning machines, as shown by their ability to learn
language and to function in society with little or no explicit
instruction
- are insatiably curious about the adult world,
- and are driven to learn by these features, and sometimes children
learn *despite* our attempts to teach them!
Unschoolers also believe, or at least this unschooler believes, that
*imposing* an agenda on a child is more counter-productive than
helpful, because it doesn't take the child seriously.
I think a lot of this can be justified by reflecting on one's own
learning experiences. Nobody makes me learn new things, I just do
because learning is fun, or because I want to know about this subject
for my own purposes (even if those purposes are as prosaic as
justifying my paycheck). The same is true for children.
I think it is also motivated by a certain kind of respect for the
rights of children. *I* don't want to be told what or when to study,
what right have I to tell another what to do and when?
Unschooling requires a lot of faith in your child, that they will
learn the things that are important for them to know despite not being
``forced'' to, that their seemingly patternless play is
experimentation that will pay off in insight, and that they will stick
to a subject through the ``hard parts''. Again, reflecting on one's
own experience can help solidify this faith, as can reflecting on the
behavior of one's own children.
- Sandra Petit <Sandra_Petit@agwbbs.new-orleans.LA.US> offers:
- "I have the Home School Manual, and the Home School Source Book. I
would be happy to answer any queries regarding school age, required
hours or other state regulations, as stated within these sources.
The books are copyright 1990 but laws change pretty fast. However,
it would be a starting point for a beginner. I don't know the
legalities of actually putting the entire section here so I would
hesitate to do that."
[ See the resources section below for more information on these
books. Remember to try your local library first! ]
- Jon Shemitz <jon@midnightbeach.com> adds:
- Those of you with WWW access can use my
List of Lists, at
http://www.midnightbeach.com/hs/listlist.htm, for pointers to
local home-schooling organizations.
The first place to go should always be your local, county, state or
university library.
[ Anybody have good ideas here for purchasing books and textbooks? ]
- Sandra Petit <Sandra_Petit@agwbbs.new-orleans.LA.US> mentions:
- "I also usually mention that the socialization I think my child
would get at school is not the kind I would choose for her
myself. I don't mean that there are not any good children at
public school. Of course that's not true. However, if your child
is home then you can better control the outside influences on that
child, particularly as a very young person-before their values can
withstand peer pressure."
- Alan Moses <alan@edstar.gse.ucsb.edu> remembers:
- "I attended the Northern California Homeschool Association
conference this past weekend in Sacramento, and David Colfax
commented that the media has pretty much stopped asking him the
"socialization" question, since it's becoming obvious that
homeschoolers are the best socialized kids in the country. This
matches my perception of our kids and their friends - in small
groups, on camping trips, and in large groups like the conference,
it is a pleasure to see kids of mixed ages and interests
interacting with consideration for each other and a minimum of
hassles. One friend of mine takes a pre-emptive approach to "the
socialization question" (which seems to be the first or second
thing we all get asked by non-homeschoolers) and the "workbooks at
the kitchen table" image some non-homeschoolers seem to have. She
begins talking about homeschooling by saying, "Two of the things I
like best about homeschooling are all the positive social contacts
the kids have, and that they get to spend so much time learning in
the community."
- Other ideas include:
- Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts
outside classes (gym, dance, choir, piano, art etc.)
neighborhood children
church groups
- Dale Parsons <dale@mhcnet.att.com> forwards the following quote from
Seymour Papert (one of the principle developers of the Logo
programming language and Lego Professor of Education Research at MIT):
- Nothing enrages me more than when people criticize my criticism
of school by telling me that schools are not just places to learn
maths and spelling, they are places where children learn a vaguely
defined thing called socialization.
I know. I think schools generally do an effective and terribly
damaging job of teaching children to be infantile, dependent,
intellectually dishonest, passive and disrespectful to their own
developmental capacities. I think that the examples I have given
of learning in a computational environment provide a glimpse of a
context for learning in which socialization would be based on a
potentiation of the individual, an empowering sense of one's own
ability to learn anything one wants to know, conditioned by deep
understanding of how these abilities are amplified by belonging
to cultures and communities.
Seymour Papert
"Tomorrow's classrooms," **New Horizons in Educational Computing**
from a 1982 interview
- Also:
- COMPARISON OF SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT BETWEEN HOME AND TRADITIONALLY
SCHOOLED STUDENTS. Shyers, L. Edward, Ph.D. University of
Florida, 1992. 311pp. Chairman: Paul J. Wittmer
Traditional schools provide for regular classroom contact with
children of the same age, and it is assumed that this regular
contact with other children aids appropriate social
adjustment. By their very nature, home schools do not provide
for regular formal classroom contact with children other than
siblings. Because of this obvious difference, parents,
educators, legislators and courts have questioned whether
children schooled at home are as socially well-adjusted as
their agemates in traditional programs. Investigation of this
possible difference was the focus of this study.
The results of this study imply that children between the ages
of 8 and 10 (sample universe for the study) have similar
beliefs about themselves regardless of how they are
schooled. All age groups in both research populations had
self-concept scores higher than the average national average
as measured by the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale.
The results of this study further indicate that children from
both schooling environments participating in this study
achieved scores on the Children's Assertive Behavior Scale
revealing slightly passive understanding of social situations.
According to the results of this study, children between the
ages of 8 and 10 who had been educated entirely in a home
school had significantly fewer problem behaviors, as
measured by the Direct Observation form of the _Child
Behavior Checklist_, than children of the same age from
traditional schools. Children of this age in this study, who
had been educated entirely in traditional schools, revealed
problem behaviors above the normal range for national
populations of the same age.
It can be concluded from the results of this study that
appropriate social skills can develop apart from the formal
contact with children other than siblings. This supports the
belief held by homeschool proponents.
6.
Do public schools have to help us in any way?
- Lousiana--Sandra Petit <Sandra_Petit@agwbbs.new-orleans.LA.US>:
- "As I understand it, homeschoolers in our area will be allowed to
use new textbooks [from the public schools] if they are available,
but they must leave a deposit--50%?--of what the books are worth. I
don't know how this will work with workbooks."
- Massachusetts--Rowan Hawthorne <rowan@praxsys.com>
- "The superintendant of each school district is responsible for
overseeing the education of children, whether in school or at
home. In some towns (such as Brookline), this means that the
superintendant will make many school services available to parents
educating their own children. It could conceivably mean that some
superintendants could give you trouble, though I haven't heard of
any cases."
- Alan Moses <alan@edstar.gse.ucsb.edu> opines:
- "Whose expectations are we talking about here? One of my strongest
motivations for homeschooling is to avoid the imposition of
artificial external constraints on what my children should be
learning at any given time. There is ample literature out there
supporting a wide range of individual differences when it comes to
what a child should be able to do at a certain calendar age. Having
grade based expectations is only an issue if you are trying to
manage a class of 30 different children as if they were all the
same. And if for legal or administrative reasons you find yourself
faced with having to take some sort of norm-based achievement test,
homeschooled kids seems to do just fine compared to their schooled
peers, so this is no reason to structure your learning approach to
these artificial measures.
"To whatever extent possible, evaluation should come from the
learner rather than being imposed on the learner. If your child is
frustrated because she wanted to understand something and has been
unable to overcome some stumbling block, this will be obvious to
you as a parent, and you can offer help as indicated. Likewise,
the recognition of accomplishment should also emanate from the
child - they needn't be dependent on us to validate what they've
done."
- Sandra Petit <Sandra_Petit@agwbbs.new-orleans.LA.US> thinks:
- "I would say the first step is to get to know your child. Though
we see them everyday, sometimes we are not really aware of the
person inside that little body and how things look to them.
Sometimes I have to stop myself and say, why should she know this
already-how would she have learned it? Also, to learn HOW your
child learns best. Then to read, read, read and see just what
would fit into your life."
- Alan Moses <alan@edstar.gse.ucsb.edu> mentions:
- "Given the opportunity, children willingly and aggressively educate
themselves. Give them the freedom to set their own agendas, be sure
they have the time, space and materials to do what they are
interested in, be there when your child asks for guidance and
support, and be attentive to their needs. In short, trust them, and
love them."
Initial Results from Nationwide Survey
(Extract from "Home School Court Report" - Christmas 1990)
On November 16, 1990, the National Home Education Research
Institute (NHERI) of Seattle, Washington, released its first
report of _A Nationwide Study of Home Education: Family
Characteristics, Legal Matters, and Student Achievement_.
Here is a sampling of the results:
WHAT IS THE AVERAGE HOMESCHOOLING FAMILY LIKE?
*** Variable *** * Mean Value *
Father years education 14.99
Mother years education 14.09
Percent teaching done by father 9.95
Percent teaching done by mother 88.32
Percent teaching done by others 1.71
Number of children per family 3.21
Percent of income by father 96.37
Percent of income by mother 3.48
Number of visits to library per month 3.09
Cost ($) per child per year to HS 488.53
===============================================
EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT OF THE FATHERS
* Years of Formal Education * Percentage *
Less than 12 3.0
Twelve (H.S. diploma) 24.2
13 - 15 (some college) 22.5
16 (college degree) 29.3
17 or more 21.0
===============================================
EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT OF THE MOTHERS
* Years of Formal Education * Percentage *
Less than 12 1.7
Twelve (H.S. diploma) 31.8
13 - 15 (some college) 31.3
16 (college degree) 27.5
17 or more 7.7
===============================================
NUMBER OF CHILDREN PER FAMILY
* Number of Children * * Percentage *
1 4.3
2 28.3
3 33.6
4 19.5
5 9.0
6 or more 5.3
===============================================
ANNUAL INCOME OF FAMILIES
* Income Range * * Percentage *
Under $10,000 1.4
$10,000 - 14,999 2.9
$15,000 - 19,999 5.5
$20,000 - 24,999 11.4
$25,000 - 34,999 25.6
$35,000 - 49,999 29.7
$50,000 - 74,999 15.8
$75,000 and up 7.6
==============================================
DESCRIPTIVE INFORMATION ABOUT THE CHILDREN
*** Variable *** * Mean Value *
Age 8.24
Grade 3.25
Years taught at home since age 5 3.02
Years of public school before HS 3.36
Years of private school before HS 2.79
Years of public school after HS 2.31
Years of private school after HS 1.71
Grade thru which parents plan HS 10.88
==============================================
ATTENDANCE AT PUBLIC OR PRIVATE SCHOOL FOR
HOMESCHOOLING CHILDREN
* School Participation * * Percentage *
Attended public school prior
to home school 25.6
Attended private school prior
to home school 24.4
Attended public school after
home school 2.8
Attended private school after
home school 3.0
==============================================
NATIONAL PERCENTILE SCORES ON STANDARDIZED
ACHIEVEMENT TESTS
* National *
* Variable * * Percentile Mean *
Total Reading 84th
Total Listening 85th
Total Language 80th
Total Math 81st
Science 84th
Social Studies 83rd
Basic Battery 82nd
Complete Battery 82nd
==============================================
LEGAL STATUS OF FAMILIES WITH RESPECT TO
HOME EDUCATION STATE STATUTES
* Status * * Percentage *
Underground 15.3
Notified district, not attempting
to comply fully 4.9
Satisfied statutory requirements 58.6
In current dispute about legal status 0.4
Other 20.7
=============================================
ACTIVITIES OF HOME-EDUCATED PERSONS AFTER
HIGH SCHOOL
* Activity * * Percentile *
Junior college 17.2
Four-year college 33.3
Trade school 0.0
Business school 0.0
Full-time employment 12.1
Military 0.0
Other 37.4
============================================
"[The homeschooling movement is] in effect, though certainly
not by design - a laboratory for the intensive and long-range
study of children's learning and of the ways in which friendly
and concerned adults can help them. It is a research project,
done at no cost, of a kind for which neither the public
schools nor the government could afford to pay."- John Holt,
"Schools and Home-schoolers: A Fruitful Partnership," Phi
Delta Kappan, Feb. 1983.
What follows are listings from the growing body of research on
homeschooling that address frequently voiced concerns. We
chose these listings because they are either frequently cited
in other works about homeschooling, or are more accessible to
the general reader than other academic studies. Some
universities and colleges will allow anyone to use their
libraries, and they are more likely to have these journals and
books than a public library. Some citations on this list
appear in several categories because one study often covers
many different questions about homeschooling.
-
Research that supports the claim that homeschoolers do as
well as or better than their schooled peers academically :
-
Greene, S. (1985) Home study in Alaska: A profile of K-12
students enrolled in the Alaska Centralized Correspondence
Study. Resources in Education. (ERIC document Reproduction
Service No. ED 255 494)
Rakestraw, J. (1987) An Analysis of Home Schooling for
Elementary School-age Children in Alabama. Doctoral
Dissertation, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL.
Ray, B.D. & Wartes, J. (1991) Academic Task and Socializing.
In J. Van Galen and M.A Pittman (Eds.) Home Schooling:
Political, Historical, and Pedagogical Perspectives. Norwood,
NJ: Ablex.
Richman, Howard. (1988) Homeschoolers Score Higher - A
Replicable Result. (available from Pennsylvania
Homeschoolers, RD 2, Box 117, Kittanning PA 16201)
Wartes, J. (1990). The Relationship of Selected Input
Variables to Academic Achievement Among Washington's
Homeschoolers, [16109 NE 169th Place,] Woodinville, WA:
Washington Homeschool Research Project.
- Research that supports the claim that homeschoolers are
not deprived of social skills or experiences:
-
Delahooke, M.M. (1986). Home educated children's
social/emotional adjustment and academic achievement: a
comparative study. Doctoral dissertation, California School of
Professional Psychology, Los Angeles. Dissertation Abstracts
International, 47 475A.
Montgomery, L. (1989). The effect of home schooling on the
leadership skills of home schooled students. Home School
Researcher, Vol. 5 (1), 1-10. Taylor, J.W. (1986)
Self-concept in home-schooling children. Doctoral
dissertation, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, MI.
- Research that supports the claim that homeschooling
parents do not need to be certified teachers to help their
children learn:
- Rakestraw, J. (1987). An Analysis of Home Schooling for
Elementary School- age Children in Alabama. Doctoral
Dissertation, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL.
Ray, B. (1990) A Nationwide Study of Home Education: Family
Characteristics, Legal Matters, and Student Achievement. The
National Home Education Research Institute. 25 W. Cremona St.
Seattle, WA 98119
Wartes, J. (1990). The Relationship of Selected Input
Variables to Academic Achievement Among Washington's
Homeschoolers, [16109 NE 169th Place,] Woodinville, WA:
Washington Homeschool Research Project.
- Research that supports the claim that the number of
homeschoolers is increasing in the United States:
- Lines, P. (1987). An Overview of Home Instruction. Phi Delta
Kappan, March 1987.
Lines, P. (1990). Home Instruction: Characteristics, Size and
Growth. In Home Schooling: Political, Historical, and
Pedagogical Perspectives. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing.
- Research that supports the claim that homeschoolers
encounter no special difficulty in getting into college or
finding employment:
- Barnaby, L.(1984) American university admission requirements
for home schooled applicants, in 1984. Doctoral dissertation,
Brigham Young University, Provo, UT. Dissertation Abstracts
International, 47(3), 798A.
Webb, J. (1989) The Outcomes of Home-based Edcation:
Employment and Other Issues. Educational Review, 41(2).
- Sources for more research information:
- The Moore Foundation, Box 1, Camas WA 98607 (Dr. Raymond
Moore)
The National Home Education Research Institute, 25 W. Cremona
St. Seattle, WA 98119
(Dr. Brian Ray) Articles in academic journals about
homeschooling can be accessed using the ERIC database
(available in many public and university libraries); when
searching in ERIC be sure to look at all the forms of the word
"homeschooling" (i.e. home school, home-school, home
education, etc.) in order to get the largest number of
references. You can also write to the National Home Education
Research Institute (see above) for details on how to obtain
their current bibliography of home-schooling articles. To
obtain a copy of a dissertation, be sure to get correct
reference numbers from the University Microfilms International
(UMI) Dissertation Abstracts database or books (according to
their literature they are "the only central source of
accessing almost every doctoral dissertation accepted in North
America since 1861"). Contact UMI at 300 N. Zeeb Rd., Ann
Arbor MI 48106; 800-521-0600.
- Magazines that report or print homeschooling research:
- Education and Urban Society. Special issue: Understanding Home
Schools: Emerging Research and Reactions. J. Gary Knowles, Ed.
Volume 21, No. 1, Nov. 1988
Growing Without Schooling, 2269 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge
MA 02140
Home Education Magazine, PO Box 1083, Tonasket WA 98855 (Their
Jan./Feb. 1991 issue contains a special section on research.)
Home Education Researcher, The National Home Education
Research Institute, 25 W. Cremona St. Seattle, WA 98110 The
Teaching Home, PO Box 20219, Portland OR 97220
- Books that report homeschooling research:
- Moore, Raymond and Dorothy (1988). Home School Burnout: What
it is. What Causes It. And How To Overcome It. Brentwood, TN:
Wolgemuth & Hyatt. The Moores have written many other books
about homeschooling based on their research and studies; this
is their most recent. Some of their other titles are (1979)
School Can Wait . Provo, UT: Brigham Young Univ. Press; (1982)
Homespun Schools . Waco, TX : Word Books; (1984) Homestyle
Teaching. Waco, TX : Word Books. Van Galen, J. & Pitman, M.A.
eds. (1991). Home Schooling: Political, Historical, and
Pedagogical Perspectives. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing.
Webb, Julie (1990). Children Learning At Home. London, UK:
Falmer Press
- Books and articles related to, but not specifically
about, homeschooling research:
- Arons, S. (1983) Compelling Belief: The Culture of American
Schooling, Amherst, MA: Univ. of MA Press. Studies the
conflict between the individual and institutionalism in
education, with a section on homeschooling.
Farenga, P. , ed. (1991) Homeschooling In The News, Cambridge,
MA: Holt Associates. Collection of national print media
articles about homeschooling that are not academically
oriented. Useful for seeing how the mass media portrays
homeschooling.
Holt, J. (1981) Teach Your Own: A Hopeful Path for Education.
Bantam/Doubleday/Dell, NY.
McCarthy, Oppewal, Peterson, Spykman, (1981) Society, State, &
Schools, Grand Rapids, MI: Eermans. This is a scholarly study
that advocates multiple educational systems that tolerate
pluralistic worldviews.
Resnick, L. (1987) Learning In School and Out, Educational
Researcher, December 1987. 13 - 20. Shows that practically
none of the skills learned in school are transferable to the
world of work.
Seefeldt, C. ed. (1990). Continuing Issues in Early Childhood
Education. Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill. Chapters by Dr.
Raymond Moore about delaying school entrance and by Susannah
Sheffer, editor of Growing Without Schooling, about
homeschooling.
Tizard, B. and Hughes, M. (1984). Young Children Learning.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press. Ample evidence that
children of working class parents learn more effectively at
home than in nursery schools.
This is one of many articles available from Holt Associates about
homeschooling.
Excerpted from:
Holt Associates Inc., 2269 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02140 (617) 864-3100
The World-Wide-Web! If you have direct-access, and the ability to
use X (or Windows or a Macintosh), find out about Mosaic. If you
don't have those graphics capabilities, there are text-only
programs for exploring the information resources available through
the World-Wide-Web that are freely available (Lynx is the name of
one).
- From: PHIKLEPP@ACS.EKU.EDU (Gene Kleppinger)
- Besides using reference tools and everything else on CD-ROMs,
I have no personal recommendations right now. But I do have
one suggestion: assuming you have telnet or gopher, get to the
University of Maryland's Reading Room and look at what's in
Computers, under HomeEducation. (Gopher to U Maryland, or
telnet to info.umd.edu and login as gopher; then choose
Educational Resources, then ReadingRoom.)
There's a "report" there (dated October 1992) about Internet
resources with educational themes; I believe it even mentions
this mailing list. The appendix contains a long, annotated
list of service providers, Internet educational forums and
published literature.
The report is available in electronic form from
home-ed-approval@world.std.com. It is 93K long, so be sure
your mailbox has enough room:
USING COMPUTER-BASED, TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES
TO SERVE EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES AT HOME
This recently released report addresses the use of computer-
based, telecommunications services to meet educational needs at
home -- focusing on services for students in grade 7 through
college (including adult education). The curriculum areas on
which the report concentrates are mathematics, science,
technology, engineering, and career education.
The report was produced for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation by Jay
P. Sivin-Kachala and Ellen R. Bialo of Interactive Educational
Systems Design, Inc., 310 West 106th Street, New York, NY 10025.
Included in the report is a summary of telecommunications
functions that support educational purposes. It goes on to
provide an overview and detailed information on a variety of
telecommunications service providers, including:
- The Internet -- the data highway
- General purpose, commercial networks that provide
educational services
- Regional and statewide networks
- Library access networks
- Special purpose networks
- Bulletin board systems
There is also a section that reports the results of interviews
with several telephone homework hotlines, which can be used as a
model for computer network-based tutoring services.
To receive a copy of this report, please contact Samuel Y.
Gibbon, Jr. or Sue Estelle, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, 630 Fifth
Avenue, Suite #2550, New York, New York 10111,
212-649-1649.
- From: dkline@nrel.gov (David Kline)
- My oldest (13) has gotten considerable mileage out of an
educationally-chartered online resource called Cyberion
City. In fact, Howard Rheingold thought this was such a novel
idea -- the use of a MUD in homeschooling -- that he wrote it
up as a sidebar to the article in Wired magazine (July/Aug
1993).
You can read the article, and find complete directions to Cyberion City
(aka MicroMuse) on my home page at
http://www.well.com/www/kline.
I'd be happy to send further details and instructions to get
to Cyberion City to anyone who would like it. Just
email me:
kline@well.sf.ca.us is the preferred address.
- From: king@access.digex.com:
- We haven't done much with the kids yet about getting them
online. But, last night I found this wonderful virtual
school called "Diversity University" at 155.31.1.1, port
8888
It is a text based adventure (known as a MUD) wrapped around
a university level learning environment. I didn't get very
far last night but did manage to find the info & explanation
files. WARNING: this is not a "playroom" type of system. The
docs make it very clear that Diversity University is a
serious endeavor where profanity and rudeness are neither
welcome nor tolerated.
Here are the directions for connecting to Diversity
University.
Telnet
Open 155.31.1.1 8888
at this point you will receive a login type of prompt so type:
connect guest guest
To leave type "@quit"
To see the opening screen again type "look"
To get help type "help"
Once online you are welcome to visit the Home School House by
typing @go #4592 and then typing 'foyer' to enter the house.
There are twice weekly online chat sessions at Diversity
University. Within the virtual environment of the MOO it is
possible and highly encouraged for people to form their own
discussion groups and move to another "room" where they can
talk in private if they wish.
Everyone, home schooling or not is welcome to visit Diversity
University and participate in the virtual campus'
activities. There are many activities you may find interesting
besides the home school chats on Wednesday and Thursday
evenings at 8PM EDT.
There are books on this subject. Anything we put here
will go out of date very quickly. Probably a good place
to begin is:
*********************************
Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet
*********************************
EFF is proud to announce that the Big Dummy's Guide to the
Internet is now available for free download from our ftp
site. The Big Dummy's Guide is a user guide for novices
on all the Internet has to offer.
The genesis of the Big Dummy's Guide was a few informal
conversations, which included Mitch Kapor of the
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Steve Cisler of
Apple Computers, in June of 1991. With the support of
Apple Computers, EFF hired a writer (Adam Gaffin) and
actually took on the project in September of 1991.
The idea was to write a guide to the Internet for folks
who had little or no experience with network
communications. The Guide is currently posted to "the
'net" in ASCII and Hypercard (Mac) formats. We have been
giving it away on disk at conferences, and we hope to have
a print edition available for a nominal charge soon.
We're hoping to update this Guide on a regular basis, so
please feel free to send us your comments and corrections.
EFF would like to thank the folks at Apple, especially
Steve Cisler of the Apple Library, for their support and
gentle prodding in our efforts to bring this Guide to you.
We hope it helps you open up a whole new world, where new
friends and experiences are sure to be yours. Enjoy!
The Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet can be downloaded by
anonymous ftp from ftp.eff.org. The ASCII version is
located at pub/Net_info/EFF_Net_Guide/netguide.eff.
[I realize what appears below is something of an
advertisement, but I'm including it anyway since it has
some valuable information and it's still cheaper than all
the internet guides being put out these days) --- dm]
- BOBRANKIN@delphi.com <Bob Rankin> writes:
- I noticed some mention of Internet resources in the
FAQ but not a lot of specifics on how to access them.
Same goes for the Internet articles in the latest
"Practical Home Schooling" magazine and Sunday's NY
Times. So here's "Doctor Bob's Internet Tip of the
Day" for finding Internet resources on any topic.
Use "gopher" to get to the gopher.earn.net system.
Then try the choice labelled "Other Gopher and
Information Servers". This menu will have an entry
for "Veronica". (If you know another way to access
Veronica, fine.) Select a server to handle your
"gopherspace" query and enter keyword(s) that describe
what you're looking for, like "Declaration
Independence" or "chemistry". Hopefully, you'll be
rewarded with a menu of pointers to the desired
resources!
By the way... I have authored two informative reports
on the Internet which may be of interest to the
readers of this group.
- If you have e-mail only access to the Internet, you
can still use Gopher, FTP, Archie, Veronica and
WAIS! My 8-page report "ACCESSING INTERNET SERVICES
VIA E-MAIL" explains in detail how to do it all
using just e-mail. Easy to follow, step by step
instructions. (EMAIL or HARDCOPY)
- Are you a little overwhelmed by the Internet? There
are lots of info-gems out there, but it's not easy
to find 'em. My 12-page report "100 Cool Things -
Doctor Bob's Internet Tour Guide" gives you an
introduction to the "tools of the trade" and then
takes you step-by-step to over 100 interesting
Internet destinations! (HARDCOPY ONLY)
To order either report, send just $5.00 and SASE to:
DOCTOR BOB
PO BOX 39
TILLSON, NY 12486
(For electronic delivery, send only $4.50 and your
e-mail address!)
Next part of the FAQ.
dm@world.std.com (Dave Mankins)
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