TV as a teaching tool
Sandra Dodd
If anyone is bored and wants to get in on a little exchange with someone who is promoting TV as a teaching tool, there's a discussion I have to abandon to go to a conference. I'll be in airports for a few hours, and eventually at a hotel where I might not check back in to that for a while.
Or it can be discussed right here amongst ourselves, if people would rather not mess with Facebook.
My response of this morning:
-=-isn't that really semantics in the end-=-
No, it's not. Nothing is just semantics.
-=-But it can equally be said that it is simply a term of definition. Whenever something is learned something has been taught - by someone or something.-=-
People who believe that is true will not ever really understand unschooling.
http://sandradodd.com/wordswords
http://sandradodd.com/semantics
---------------------------------
And what led up to it, on the Radical Unschooling Info page (which I created) on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/303347574750/doc/10150284039689751/
TV as a tool for expanding kids educational horizons
Hi. Thanks for allowing me to join the group. Allow me to introduce myself and forgive me for the long introduction but its relevant to why I came to the group. I'm Mo, a primarily SAHD of kids ranging from ages 3-11. I have worked at various times as a teacher and as manager of a bookstore among other things but my main focus is raising my kids. My educational background includes a couple of degrees in literature and a TOEFL certificate (teacher of English as a Foreign Language) so I have formal training and education to go along with my experience as a dad.
I'm not, strictly speaking an unschooling parent in the pure sense of the term. We have an excellent local education system and I make use of it for what it provides. That said, my friends who do purely homeschool have said of me that they consider what I do to be "homeschooling while also tapping into the public system as one tool in my overall education plan." My unschooling friends are the ones who begged me to create my blog on the topic on which I've been able to provide them with so much information and they feel I should be sharing with other parents like themselves - in other words parents like yourselves. This is what brings me here and which I shall shortly introduce to you.
Obviously, as the manager of a bookstore as well as a literature major I'm keen on the use of books in education. That, however, is not why I joined the group. Lots of people use books to teach and I'm likely no more or less an expert on that than anyone here. An area in which I have become an authority in my community however is on the subject of using TV as an educational tool. Over a decade of research, trial and error and experience with 4 children has taught me a lot about what programs are the best for teaching kids lessons – both of an academic and of a social nature. Several months ago people finally convinced me that it was time for me to start blogging so as to share the knowledge I was sharing with them with more parents. Upon researching the matter I discovered that there was really no one out there discussing the issue and I realized they were right. There's so much material out there, as I've discovered and no one seems to be discussing it. Accordingly I started a site at www.tvteaches.com and began blogging on the topic of using TV as an educational tool to teach your children (and yes I know the various objections to TV and relate to them on the site).
Alas a couple of weeks ago a hacker (who apparently did NOT have caring parents bringing them up) broke into my site and deleted everything on it. In the past this might have thoroughly discouraged me but based on the response I was getting to my articles before this happened I realize that what I have to share is something that other parents and educators are finding useful. So I'm rebuilding because frankly if what I have to share helps a single kid out there (as it has in my community already) than that alone makes it my duty to go on with it. I hope you'll check out the site which although perhaps lacking aesthetically (I'm not a professional site builder and am blogging because I enjoy the topic. The only way I'm likely to get any money out of this is if people click the ads on my pages to go visit my sponsors or buy from my webstore for which I get a small kickback from amazon for anything you buy at their site if you get there through me) will hopefully be useful to you for the information I have to give. I'm trying to build an informational resource center as it were of the best educational programs out there as seen through the eyes of a parent who has had actual "experience in the field" using those shows to teach with.
Feel free to friend me here on Facebook (I generally post a link to the new articles so my friends are alerted first) if you feel this might interest you. Indeed I'm happy to have anyone for whom expanding their children's education, and for whom opening their horizons for exploration is important to them, to be a friend. You can easily (and I hope you will feel free to) share any of the articles by clicking the like button on top of a given article at the site. I also have a newsletter planned which you can sign up for inside any article although I haven't launched the letter yet.
All my homeschooling and unschooling friends told me that this community of parents was a place to let people know about my site and I tend to agree with them as generally I've found that the more people are invested in expanding their children's education the more thirsty they are for information about various methods people have used with their kids. Onwww.tvteaches.com I intend to unfold this method before you by reviewing the shows I have experience with and discussing issues of multimedia and tools for expanding education. I hope you'll visit and feel free to leave comments there as well. Constructive criticism and healthily generated discussion and debate help us – and ultimately helps us help our kids.
Mo Ebner
Like · Unsubscribe · Report · 13 hours ago
Sandra Dodd The objection on this site won't be to TV, but to "teaches," and the "TVTeacher" moniker. Unschooling isn't about teaching. And kids can learn from any show on TV, not just those someone else decides are educational. I'm sorry your site was deleted. I looked at the Wayback Machine, but it hadn't been there long enough to be picked up by them, perhaps.
Perhaps you've seen this collection:
http://sandradodd.com/tv
My daughter Holly (19) and I are giving a presentation this weekend on Learning from TV and Movies, at the Good Vibrations Unschooling Conference.
12 hours ago via · Like
Mo Ebner Sandra - thanks for the input. you may be right about the teaching issue but isn't that really semantics in the end? You're looking at teaching as necessarily being a deliberate action meant to push a point of view or instill a philosophy. But it can equally be said that it is simply a term of definition. Whenever something is learned something has been taught - by someone or something. I agree with you that people can learn from any site on TV and if you read my articles there you'll see I note that even those shows with negative social values can be instructive - provided its made clear by the parents that those are negative. I'm not saying that the shows I post are the only ones out there - just ones I've had success with based on my kids interest in wanting to rewatch them or learning things from them. As for the site I'm rebuilding - can't let some hacker get me down :-). Good luck to you and Holly on the presentation!
4 hours ago · Like
Mo Ebner thanks for your site by the way. I shall read through the pieces there with interest. In any event on my site for the most part I'll be presenting material I've found to be useful to parents who may not necessarily be familiar with the programs. Obviously it will be the parents choice whether to expose their kids to it or not and up to the kids to determine if they want to watch it again. I've never forced anything on my kids. I just try and find what I believe to be the most interesting and informative material I can within the limits of my personal judgement and then leave them free to choose what they like out of it. I didn't produce or write any of the shows so I take no insult from anything rejected :-). Think of it as just another resource to be used to whatever extent parents find it useful.
4 hours ago · Like
Sandra Dodd -=-isn't that really semantics in the end-=-
No, it's not. Nothing is just semantics.
-=-But it can equally be said that it is simply a term of definition. Whenever something is learned something has been taught - by someone or something.-=-
People who believe that is true will not ever really understand unschooling.
http://sandradodd.com/wordswords
http://sandradodd.com/semantics
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Or it can be discussed right here amongst ourselves, if people would rather not mess with Facebook.
My response of this morning:
-=-isn't that really semantics in the end-=-
No, it's not. Nothing is just semantics.
-=-But it can equally be said that it is simply a term of definition. Whenever something is learned something has been taught - by someone or something.-=-
People who believe that is true will not ever really understand unschooling.
http://sandradodd.com/wordswords
http://sandradodd.com/semantics
---------------------------------
And what led up to it, on the Radical Unschooling Info page (which I created) on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/303347574750/doc/10150284039689751/
TV as a tool for expanding kids educational horizons
Hi. Thanks for allowing me to join the group. Allow me to introduce myself and forgive me for the long introduction but its relevant to why I came to the group. I'm Mo, a primarily SAHD of kids ranging from ages 3-11. I have worked at various times as a teacher and as manager of a bookstore among other things but my main focus is raising my kids. My educational background includes a couple of degrees in literature and a TOEFL certificate (teacher of English as a Foreign Language) so I have formal training and education to go along with my experience as a dad.
I'm not, strictly speaking an unschooling parent in the pure sense of the term. We have an excellent local education system and I make use of it for what it provides. That said, my friends who do purely homeschool have said of me that they consider what I do to be "homeschooling while also tapping into the public system as one tool in my overall education plan." My unschooling friends are the ones who begged me to create my blog on the topic on which I've been able to provide them with so much information and they feel I should be sharing with other parents like themselves - in other words parents like yourselves. This is what brings me here and which I shall shortly introduce to you.
Obviously, as the manager of a bookstore as well as a literature major I'm keen on the use of books in education. That, however, is not why I joined the group. Lots of people use books to teach and I'm likely no more or less an expert on that than anyone here. An area in which I have become an authority in my community however is on the subject of using TV as an educational tool. Over a decade of research, trial and error and experience with 4 children has taught me a lot about what programs are the best for teaching kids lessons – both of an academic and of a social nature. Several months ago people finally convinced me that it was time for me to start blogging so as to share the knowledge I was sharing with them with more parents. Upon researching the matter I discovered that there was really no one out there discussing the issue and I realized they were right. There's so much material out there, as I've discovered and no one seems to be discussing it. Accordingly I started a site at www.tvteaches.com and began blogging on the topic of using TV as an educational tool to teach your children (and yes I know the various objections to TV and relate to them on the site).
Alas a couple of weeks ago a hacker (who apparently did NOT have caring parents bringing them up) broke into my site and deleted everything on it. In the past this might have thoroughly discouraged me but based on the response I was getting to my articles before this happened I realize that what I have to share is something that other parents and educators are finding useful. So I'm rebuilding because frankly if what I have to share helps a single kid out there (as it has in my community already) than that alone makes it my duty to go on with it. I hope you'll check out the site which although perhaps lacking aesthetically (I'm not a professional site builder and am blogging because I enjoy the topic. The only way I'm likely to get any money out of this is if people click the ads on my pages to go visit my sponsors or buy from my webstore for which I get a small kickback from amazon for anything you buy at their site if you get there through me) will hopefully be useful to you for the information I have to give. I'm trying to build an informational resource center as it were of the best educational programs out there as seen through the eyes of a parent who has had actual "experience in the field" using those shows to teach with.
Feel free to friend me here on Facebook (I generally post a link to the new articles so my friends are alerted first) if you feel this might interest you. Indeed I'm happy to have anyone for whom expanding their children's education, and for whom opening their horizons for exploration is important to them, to be a friend. You can easily (and I hope you will feel free to) share any of the articles by clicking the like button on top of a given article at the site. I also have a newsletter planned which you can sign up for inside any article although I haven't launched the letter yet.
All my homeschooling and unschooling friends told me that this community of parents was a place to let people know about my site and I tend to agree with them as generally I've found that the more people are invested in expanding their children's education the more thirsty they are for information about various methods people have used with their kids. Onwww.tvteaches.com I intend to unfold this method before you by reviewing the shows I have experience with and discussing issues of multimedia and tools for expanding education. I hope you'll visit and feel free to leave comments there as well. Constructive criticism and healthily generated discussion and debate help us – and ultimately helps us help our kids.
Mo Ebner
Like · Unsubscribe · Report · 13 hours ago
Sandra Dodd The objection on this site won't be to TV, but to "teaches," and the "TVTeacher" moniker. Unschooling isn't about teaching. And kids can learn from any show on TV, not just those someone else decides are educational. I'm sorry your site was deleted. I looked at the Wayback Machine, but it hadn't been there long enough to be picked up by them, perhaps.
Perhaps you've seen this collection:
http://sandradodd.com/tv
My daughter Holly (19) and I are giving a presentation this weekend on Learning from TV and Movies, at the Good Vibrations Unschooling Conference.
12 hours ago via · Like
Mo Ebner Sandra - thanks for the input. you may be right about the teaching issue but isn't that really semantics in the end? You're looking at teaching as necessarily being a deliberate action meant to push a point of view or instill a philosophy. But it can equally be said that it is simply a term of definition. Whenever something is learned something has been taught - by someone or something. I agree with you that people can learn from any site on TV and if you read my articles there you'll see I note that even those shows with negative social values can be instructive - provided its made clear by the parents that those are negative. I'm not saying that the shows I post are the only ones out there - just ones I've had success with based on my kids interest in wanting to rewatch them or learning things from them. As for the site I'm rebuilding - can't let some hacker get me down :-). Good luck to you and Holly on the presentation!
4 hours ago · Like
Mo Ebner thanks for your site by the way. I shall read through the pieces there with interest. In any event on my site for the most part I'll be presenting material I've found to be useful to parents who may not necessarily be familiar with the programs. Obviously it will be the parents choice whether to expose their kids to it or not and up to the kids to determine if they want to watch it again. I've never forced anything on my kids. I just try and find what I believe to be the most interesting and informative material I can within the limits of my personal judgement and then leave them free to choose what they like out of it. I didn't produce or write any of the shows so I take no insult from anything rejected :-). Think of it as just another resource to be used to whatever extent parents find it useful.
4 hours ago · Like
Sandra Dodd -=-isn't that really semantics in the end-=-
No, it's not. Nothing is just semantics.
-=-But it can equally be said that it is simply a term of definition. Whenever something is learned something has been taught - by someone or something.-=-
People who believe that is true will not ever really understand unschooling.
http://sandradodd.com/wordswords
http://sandradodd.com/semantics
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]