How Digitalization Has Reshaped Homeschooling

Over the past few years, homeschooling has become a popular alternative for parents considering their children’s education. According to the National Home Education Research Institute, there were 3.7 million homeschooled students in the 2020-21 academic year — one million more compared to the pre-pandemic time. Parents’ reasons for homeschooling their children vary from health-related to religious purposes. Some parents also cite the negative impact of huge classrooms on student learning, while others prefer the freedom to choose what works best for the children’s learning styles.

Aside from the pandemic leading the shift to remote and home learning, the proliferation of the internet and digitalization has reshaped homeschooling and education as a whole. Today, e-learning is no longer unusual for parents, teachers, and students. As highlighted by a Studocu report on ‘E-Learning Statistics’, the global e-learning market is anticipated to be worth nearly $1 trillion by 2028.

The rise of e-learning is also associated with a positive impact on climate change by reducing energy consumption by 90%. In a sense, digitalization made education more accessible for homeschoolers, and current trends show that things will only continue to progress in this direction. In this post, we’ll look at some of the ways digitalization has reshaped homeschooling:

How Digitalization Has Reshaped Homeschooling

Personalized learning experience

Students who learn from home have access to a variety of digital technologies that helps instruct, evaluate, adapt, and challenge them based on their educational needs. EdChoice’s survey of homeschooling families highlights that online learning helps create a more flexible and personalized digital education environment for all students.

After all, homeschoolers are drawn to this practice as they can develop routines and schedules that work for them, ensuring that students are learning at the times of the day when they are most engaged. At the same time, the flexibility of online learning offers families more time to do activities they want to do; for instance, they may opt to bring their schooling materials along on an educational vacation.

Of course, this blend of flexibility and structure will take some trial and error to accommodate the different responsibilities of various families. However, a more customized education will allow students to have broader learning experiences.

Tech-driven gamification

These days, you can incorporate many digital tools into your homeschooling sessions, such as online curriculums, printable worksheets, and educational software designed to teach various topics. One other tech-driven solution to homeschooling is the rise of gamification or gamified learning. Homeschool.com’s feature on gamification explains that because most children generally enjoy games, incorporating them into your homeschool plan can boost focus and engagement.

Educational software and programs today offer a gamified approach to learning so children won’t easily forget new topics or concepts. Gamified learning also sets clear, visual goals for you and the kids to keep track of particular topics and how they’re doing. Best of all, gamification eliminates the threat of learning being boring for children.

Practical life skills

Digitalization has reshaped homeschooling by making it an accessible means of teaching children practical and essential life skills. In a previous post listing “25 Life Skills to Teach Your Children for Adulthood”, we emphasized how life skills can enable children how to identify and resolve real-world problems. Outside the confines of a classroom, homeschool parents can incorporate real-world examples where current topics are relevant.

For instance, children can learn math through apps and other digital resources, which parents can use to teach them basic financial management and responsibility. Using relevant news items from videos or digital publications for specific topics can also help children develop emotional intelligence to understand and regulate their emotions.

While the rise of remote learning may have resulted from the pandemic, many parents and students today benefit from digital tools to help enhance homeschooling education. Providing a personalized learning experience and engaging children through gamification can help provide entertaining perspectives to learning new things. At the same time, taking a more holistic approach to your child’s digital education will also help them develop practical life skills.

Forest Rose

Forest Rose is a God Loving, Blessed Wife, &  Mama to 3 girls. She’s passionate about lifting moms out of the trenches that are discouraged, overwhelmed, or feeling alone or isolated. Her hope is to point them to Christ and equip them to rise up with a newfound hope and joy within, that He alone can provide. Besides blogging, she also loves to create printables!