The effects of technology in the home are quick and widespread. Forty percent of all homes in America are connected to the Internet and 55 percent have computers, according to a survey conducted this year by Jupiter Communications. This provides a large user base that can be tapped commercially allowing parents to check up on Little Jesse's schoolwork over the Internet 24-7. Student information systems and Web providers are making access to the schools and student records part of their services to parents. A new group of free and fee-based tutoring and curriculum services to assist parents in working with their children are starting to pop up on the Web.
Home schooling is an initial target for delivery of education services.
Schools can look on this phenomenon as an opportunity or a threat. Our take is that the net effect of this will be good for education because the new services will increase the involvement of parents in their children's schooling. Let's take a brief tour of what's out there now. Three examples are National Computer System's Parent Connect, Tremont Software's Parent Link and a new product called Edulink. Eleven California school districts have installed Edulink as their home connection for parents, and NCS and Tremont are selling their parent component with the majority of new systems.