This week’s topic is on the advantages and disadvantages of communicating with parents and students via digital technologies. Web pages, blogs, text/instant messaging, Skype, and social networking sites are just a few of the methods discussed in the reading assignments. I’d like to discuss your opinion on the topic in relation to our current practicum experiences and are expectations for a future career in elementary education, but first I will summarize the key ideas from each article.
In Communicating with Parents, Kathleen Casson provides a general overview with helpful tips on establishing a positive rapport with parents. Her first tip, which many teachers unfortunately forget, is that “it is never a good idea to speak to a student’s parent or guardian for the first time in order to tell them about a problem”. An initial contact with a negative undertone can certainly spoil a relationship with parents for the rest of the year! Begin communication early in the year or in the summer months before school starts, to introduce yourself and to convey to parents that their involvement is welcomed, even expected. In fact, Casson suggests that teachers should open their classrooms both figuratively and literally to parents. Rather than view parents’ presence in the classroom as an intrusion, teachers should consider this as an opportunity to showcase students’ learning. However, Casson does not address the necessary boundaries that I feel are important to establish with parents. Teachers should be firm and never overextend themselves to meet unreasonable demands from parents (this is especially important for “helicopter parents” who tend to hover!). To avoid any potential problems, teachers should communicate clear guidelines (appropriate times to contact you, preferred ways of communication, setting times to meet rather than showing up unexpectedly, etc). With this advice in mind, teachers will be better prepared and should not have to fear interaction with parents!
In his article, Writing for the Web, David Walbert discusses a growing trend in education – that is, the use of the web as a medium for communicating with parents, students, and colleagues. Many teachers create and maintain websites and blogs for the greater school community to view. Walbert argues that the web can be “an effective tool for many types of verbal communication if we’re thoughtful about the way we communicate”. He describes the ways in which teachers should be conscious of how they present material online. Every detail, down to the size and type of font used, should be considered with respect to its purpose and user-friendliness. After all, we want our audience to find the material to be usable and accessible! Many of his principles for writing for the web can be observed in his own article. Although long, the article is easy to scan because the author has organized it clearly and strategically by subtopic with bolded headings and subheadings, concise paragraphs, a table of contents, highlighted key words/phrases (only when necessary), hyperlinks, well-chosen fonts, and an index. Several of these suggestions may be common sense, but for those who are less experienced in the world of digital technologies (like me!), I would recommend Walbert’s article.
Sydney Brown’s Using a Classroom Webpage to Communicate with Parents provides a snapshot of life at a school in North Carolina, where teachers post daily summaries of classroom activities online for parents to access. Many of these teachers, even those in the primary grades, involve the students in creating these summaries. The goal is that parents will be more informed and better prepared to communicate with their children and teachers about what is going on in school. When prompted with a “What did you do today in school?” type of question, many students will reply with a simple “nothing”. Parents may feel alienated from their own child’s education in such situations. Brown highlights the benefit of maintaining a classroom website: “with the classroom website, a parent or caretaker can build on the information conveyed in the daily summary and ask more specific questions”. In this case, the school had a grant that allowed them to provide computers with internet access to families with demonstrated financial need. This information, along with the unfortunate fact that universal access to internet is not possible for many school communities, the school’s success may seem idealistic, even unreasonable. Still, I think they model the creativity and resourcefulness with emerging technologies that many teachers should strive to match when trying to engage and include parents in the education of their children.
In Should Teachers, Kids be Digital "Friends?", Rhonda Bodfield debates the merits and potential pitfalls of digital communication between teachers and students. She points to studies by the National School Boards Association, which “show roughly three-quarters of students ages 9 to 17 with Internet access use social-networking tools weekly.” Several criminal cases involving improper communication between teachers and students have emerged in recent years, demonstrating that teachers need to be aware of what is appropriate and ethical. For those of us who plan on teaching in the primary grades, I am not sure how relevant this article is. However, I think it is still important that teachers remember that school administrators and colleagues (even potential employers!) have access to the personal information we present online. Overexposure is a concern that anyone should be conscious of when using social-networking tools. With that said, I would like to open discussion with the following questions:
How much communication do you feel is appropriate or necessary between home and school?
What factors do you think are most important to keep in mind in communicating with parents?
How do think technologies may support or inhibit these factors?
What technology(ies) do you think are most promising and realistic to help you to communicate with parents?
What issues might you need to keep in mind in using technologies to communicate with parents?
What precautions would you take or advise parents/students/colleauges to take when using the internet as a means of communication?
Hope you all had a great weekend. I look forward to reading/responding to everyone’s opinions on the topic!
