What’s at Stake for My Child?

What’s At Stake?—Why are computers important to your child?

The information age is developing fast and is here to stay to help us utilize the new informational channel it has created.  Children and young people are among the first and the most active groups to use this new form of media. Many parents are ready to help their youngsters to manage this new informational channel when others, especially older people, hope that these new changes are just an era that will eventually disappear. However, computers are here to stay and they are definitely changing the way children learn, play, get information and they also help our growing future citizens to get ready for their work life. Here are some statistics to help us understand what impact computers have in our lives:

1. By this year, an estimated 60% of new jobs in the United States will require technological skills and vast knowledge of computers.
2. In the early 1990s, people with computer skills earned 10-15% in salary more than people without these skills.

Information age has already strong foot in our children’s life since they are already using computers and the World Wide Web (Internet) in their schools, libraries, homes, and other communities. To measure this impact statistically here are some facts to show us:

1. It has been estimated that already 3 years ago, nearly 10 million children were online either at home, at school, or in other communities.
2. For the 50 million children now in U.S. school system, 27% of individual classrooms have internet access and 78% of schools have at least some kind of internet access.

Per statistics parents do understand the importance of computer skills since nearly 89% of parents believe computer skills are important in educational success.

We, the ParentsDirect Team want to emphasize the importance of the computers and the Internet. This Assistant is our creation to help parents to understand what it takes for our future hopes to succeed in their lives. We fully believe in the profits that information age will bring to us. This new era is here to stay to assist us to raise our children to have better general knowledge and vast expertise in the area they will choose to develop in their lives. By having computer skills and knowing how to utilize the internet, our children will grow to be more successful citizens.

We also understand the danger of the internet and computers and want to help parents in understanding how it works and how to make it a safer informational channel for our children. The internet is safe if used with parental supervision and with help of software that filters out the Internet indecency. Many parents face the fear of Internet because they feel like  the development is so fast that us parents have hard time keeping up with the fast development. Especially since our children learn more and more about computers and Internet every day. They sometimes have better knowledge of it than us parents do.

Nevertheless, we shouldn’t put our fears in the way to stop our children from learning and developing. Simply by setting some basic rules for and with our children, our fears can be put aside.

Teaching your child to use a computer can be a very challenging job to do as a parent, since there is so much to learn. It may seem like too much to handle. But really, it only requires some common sense, some basic experience, basic rules and sensible guidelines for children.

What can we do as parents to help our children with this new development of information age?

• At School: Make sure our child’s school has the appropriate technology and it is being used to help learning.
• At Home: Make sure our children are involved in useful, safe, fun and educating activities online.
• In the Communities: Make sure that the education and technology needs of all children are being met. We can help in meeting the need by contacting the library, school boards, city council, and county, state, and federal elected officials in our area