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sector: home use |
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location: East Midlands |
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uses: home education, research, childrens entertainment, chat groups |
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technology used: broadband, email, internet |
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Searching the Internet for educational and craft ideas is so much easier now. Downloading pictures of Viking shields or symbolic torches from the ancient Incas as part of the historical and arts curriculum is much faster, leaving Lynda with more time to spend with her family and improving how she manages her busy day. |
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Lynda is part of a home educator's association, where she contributes to a chat group, supporting members with different aspects of home education including educational curriculum and legal counselling. The chat group is important to Lynda for receiving advice and support from her peers. The 'surf and phone' feature of the broadband is essential for enabling her to chat online continuously without blocking the phone line. |
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And although Lynda's two children are both under the age of five, they can both use computers. Daniel, five years old, loves playing games online - the 'always-on' feature of broadband allows him to play his favourite game, Jimmy Neutron, uninterrupted. His younger sister, Rosie who is now three, loves to visit the website of the BBC children's channel, CBeebies, to have a closer look at her favourite characters, Teletubbies. Their favourite educational site that they all visit together is Yuckystuff.co.uk, where they can get a simple scientific explanation of how things work. |
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Juggling her children's home education and household chores, Lynda tries to get as much as possible done online. She does most of her shopping online, thus saving time by cutting down on travel to and from the stores. |
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Lynda's online shopping experience began from the time she lived in Cyprus. As it was very expensive to ship gifts abroad, she found it much cheaper and faster to shop online and have the gifts delivered straight from the online retailers. For example, Lynda bought gifts for her entire family for Christmas, which were then shipped directly from the online stores, thus avoiding any overseas postage and packing. |
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"Having broadband makes everything easy and accessible, so the world seems like a smaller place," said Lynda. "I can do anything, at any time, any place with broadband. It's knowledge at your fingertips." |
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