The purpose of the research was to determine the influence of technology in home schooling environments in Southeast Ohio. Four home schooling families within one school district and one family residing within a neighboring district volunteered to participate in one-on-one interviews. Seven administrators and counselors from the primary district were interviewed to provide a different perspective of the influence of technology on home schooling environments. Questionnaires completed by parents and interview data were collected, coded and analyzed.
Each of the families utilizes technology in one form or another. One family relies on technology to provide the entire curriculum in an online format while another family uses DVDs for the student’s curriculum. The administrators and counselors agree that the resources technology seems to provide influences parents to home school.
Results indicate that technology is present in home schooling families in varying degrees of influence and types being utilized within the home schooling curriculum format. All families in the study stated they used the Internet for various resources. Several families utilize DVDs and computer software as their forms of technology.
Future studies should consider investigating students who are home schooled part time and attend public school part time. Researchers should continue to investigate home schooling families in rural environments in order to compare the data with studies that have been conducted in urban or suburban environments.