Give your home a tech warrant of Fitness

​Are you a parent wondering how to help your children safely and confidently navigate the rapidly changing world of technology?

Technology and online accessibility is developing at a rate matched only by a child’s own curiosity and technical intuition. As a parent, it can feel like things are out of control. You might feel like you have only two options:

1. Give in and let your children dictate the terms of use for technology in the home, or
2. Get tough and lock down all smart phones, tablets, computers and other devices unless you’re sitting with them overseeing their activity (which is rare, because who has the time?).

(Maybe you discovered a third option – getting so carried away yourself you played Angry Birds six days straight, only surfacing when you realised the children who have been pestering you for dinner these last few days were your own! If so, this is not the seminar for you. Our ‘Dealing with Addictions’ Seminar is coming soon...)

If neither option one or two feels right, we have some great news: there is a safe middle option!

Mike Fitness, Head of Technology at Hukanui Primary School, is responsible for safely and effectively integrating leading technology into the classroom and he’s ready to help give our homes his technology warrant of Fitness.

On Tuesday, 7:30pm at Chapel Hill Community Church, Mike will share with you all he has learned in using technology to advance the learning of his students.

“Hukanui Primary has an incredibly supportive and progressive management and Board of Trustees who see technology as a valuable asset and have invested in me to help guide the school in using technology well. The more I learn the more excited I get about how the future of schooling,” Mike says.

Mike is also a parent, and wants to help parents confidently navigate the fast-changing world of technology.

“I understand the pressures parents are under to do the right thing, and how hard it is to stay up to speed with technology. This seminar is aimed at giving parents guiding principles to negotiate the tech world with their children, and begin to really get a lot out of it together. The idea is not to minimise technology –that’s like turning back time – but to optimise it; make the most of what is good and leave out the rubbish.”

Perhaps we might ask, ‘What’s at stake? Why bother with this at all?’ For Mike, it’s simply recognising that technology is already such an integrated part of our lives it is shaping our society.

“Employers are already searching online to see what kind of activities prospective employees have got up to. Our online profile is becoming as important as our CV. If we’re wise and teach our children to be wise, we needn’t be scared of that, but it is an example of the importance of helping our children approach technology with due respect.”

Event details:

What: Get a Tech Warrant of Fitness for your home

When: Tuesday 12 November, 7:30pm.

Where: Chapel Hill Community Church, 2 Cate Road.