New technologies have turned marinas, as well as houses, into campuses. One of these campuses is Finike Marina, in which many children received education from the boat.

 

Eda Selçuk, Setur Marinas Finike Front Office Representative

 

With developing technology, human life is getting easier day by day. Now we can get instant information from any other corner of the world with a single click. We don't wait hours, days or months to contact our loved ones. We don't need waiting for our uncles coming from Europe so that we can eat chocolate, and our travels have become quite frequent.

 

 

We experienced the benefits of technological developments most during the Covid period, the largest global pandemic in human history. The world suddenly shut down, everything stopped in a minute, like the end of a shift in a factory. Everyone locked themselves in their houses. But life couldn't go on like this. This period was quite challenging especially for our growing children and young individuals developing by discovering themselves. Because school life was the most basic social interaction area of children and young people. During the pandemic, they stayed away from their friends and could not see their teachers. In fact, the distance education method, which had been tried from time to time before, became widespread at that point. From primary school to university, every individual became accustomed to receiving education at home.

 

Although the Covid period seems to be behind us, due to the popularity of online education, many schools have not completely given up on this system. Even, schools that provide only online education began to open. I hear from our guests staying at our marina that it is very useful, especially for parents who like to travel. When I chat with them, they tell me that they no longer need to wait for the school holidays, and that just the internet connection is enough for their children's education.

 

 

So, what do the children say about this situation? Yes, the fact that they are taking lessons under the supervision of their families prevents them from misbehaving at school, but they actually like this traveler-reader mode. They enjoy being able to see course topics directly in practice. They also emphasize that their lessons can be recorded and they do not fall behind even when they are sick. Both children and their parents state that the wide variety of lessons is an important plus.

 

Children of foreign families living on boats in Finike Marina mostly receive online education. However, let's say that a Turkish family switches their son, who was a high school student, to distance education in order to travel around the world on their sailboat. In fact, let's note that this issue is the last item on the travel preparation list.

 

 

If I were to talk about my own observation, you may not be fond of the fact that our children are exposed to technology at a very early age, but you should at least know that the children in our marina participate in online lessons with more enthusiasm. We should also add to our analysis that since they opened up to the world at a young age, they grew up as individuals with higher self-confidence.

 

It has been a long time since marinas have become "life centers" rather than just places serving boats. In fact, in some marinas, there are people who can meet every need without ever going out. Now it seems that education has been added to this. Now a boat is a kindergarten, another is a middle school, the other is a high school, or in short, marinas are now "schools of life."

 

Photographs: Eda Selçuk, Josh Mills, Mael Balland