Take Care of the Routine Matters. Here are a few ideas on how to effectively communicate with parents using technology. Don’t forget – it’s all about backing up the capabilities of this technology with the right strategy. Dedicated apps often come bundled with handy reporting and monitoring functionality, enabling you to see the success of certain “campaigns” (put simply – messages) at a glance. Students … Courtesy of Kent Maslin Some teachers send a weekly Remind message to parents about what their kids are learning in class. These tools help extend learning beyond the classroom and give parents enrichment tips and ideas for learning activities they can do at home. Parents are more on-the-go today, and technology can keep them in touch. Technology lets schools and teachers more easily communicate … And how can you leverage the capabilities of the technology to improve this communication? The best way to monitor the success of parental engagement is to put in place some goals and measure performance against them. . Using technology to power your parental communication is a step towards better engagement, visibility and less administration. This article is part of the "Connect IT: Bridging the Gap Between Education and Technology" series. Using a tool like a dedicated communication app, you can use in-app messaging to start a two-way conversation with parents, where you and them can review the entire messaging history quickly and easily. Please join the discussion on Twitter by using the #ConnectIT hashtag. It’d be great if it was, wouldn’t it? Create a Wiki Use Wiki to share students work with parents. Websites, emails, e-newsletters, specialized apps and other digital... 2. Technology lets schools and teachers more easily communicate about day-to-day school events, such as back-to-school nights, fundraisers and science fairs. 8 Tips to Strengthen Parent Involvement With Digital Tools 1. Think of this list as a great way to get organized. In reality though, to really get the most out of parental engagement, you need to not just think about the what – you need to think about. Create a project or a portfolio assignment for students to complete. By employing this kind of strategy, you can improve the responsiveness and frequency of your communication while reducing the burden associated with administering it. If you’d like more advice on parental engagement strategy and how Weduc can help you deliver it. If you really want to go to town, you can also use app-based messaging to share multimedia, such as images and video, to make your communication more engaging generally. With Facebook groups, email chains and digital newsletters, they can stay more informed and offer more help and expertise during a time that’s more convenient for them. Pearson offers eight points that specify how digital tools can improve parent engagement: SIGN UP: Get more news from the EdTech newsletter in your inbox every two weeks! If you use a dedicated communication app, you may be able to set up auto-responses to certain types of messages from parents, or schedule a series of reminder messages on an event or activity to keep the receiver engaged. Different apps and platforms make it easy to communicate with parents via … The application allows educators to send one-on-one, class-wide, and school-wide text updates to parents. Then during a parent conference you have easy access to show parents the student portfolio or classroom project examples. Simple and frequent texts to parents to explain students’ progress can be far more powerful than a traditional progress report. Working parents can sometimes feel left out if they’re not able to volunteer regularly. In reality though, to really get the most out of parental engagement, you need to not just think about the what – you need to think about how you’re going to use technology, and why. 30 K–12 IT Influencers Worth a Follow in 2020, 8 Tips to Strengthen Parent Involvement With Digital Tools, How New Features in Collaboration Suites Power Classrooms, Survey: Education Among Top Industries for AR/VR Investments, 3 Ways to Configure Windows 10 for a Distraction-Free Experience, Modern Classrooms and Personalized Learning Are the Perfect Pair, 5 Steps to a Successful K–12 STEM Program Design, Modern Classrooms Energize Students and Teachers, The 6 C’s of Cybersafety: How to Keep Students Safe Online, The Do’s and Don’ts of Cleaning School-Issued Devices, #ISTE20 Live: Sessions on Equity and Online Learning Top Agenda, How IT Teams Can Better Manage Devices for Remote Learning, 3 Ways to Achieve a Successful School Improvement Initiative. Teachers and administrators at K–12 schools recognize the positive impact of parent engagement on student achievement, so many schools and districts now leverage technology to power better and more meaningful relationships with parents and families. How many parents did it reach? Using the app-based approach, you can attach or embed surveys and one-click response forms into messages. While districts need to adjust, it’s not an insurmountable challenge because many of these technologies are in use already. Minimize parent entitlement. If you’d like more advice on parental engagement strategy and how Weduc can help you deliver it, get in touch. Overcoming the Cons of New Technology in the Classroom. Luckily, recent technological advances have enabled teachers to communicate with parents on a more regular basis, and in a more efficient manner. Google Hangout, Skype and FaceTime let parents participate in class activities while being in a remote location. It’d be great if it was, wouldn’t it? He spent two years as an elementary teacher, two years as an educational trainer, 10 years as a director of technology and six years as a school superintendent. Whether that’s a percentage response rate, an increase in attendance of activities, or a reduction of calls to your school reception, a technology-based approach is a great way to do this easily. Apps such as Remind are great for this and parents will appreciate being more connected. Using modern data tools, teachers can get this information to parents much faster, as opposed to waiting until the end of the quarter when it’s often too late. . All it takes is a bit of forward planning and set up at the start, and you can have a whole campaign of automated messages going out to parents, keeping a steady stream of regular communication. Don’t forget – it’s all about backing up the capabilities of this technology with the right strategy. How many responded? Effective parental communication and engagement nowadays isn’t just about launching a new website, working up some pretty email templates or deploying a shiny new app. Television or Video. One of the advantages of using technology to drive parental communication is that with the right tools, you can use automation to help you keep up engagement with less investment in time and resource. In rural Groton, New York, Groton Elementary School is using Remind to build a bridge to parents who feel disconnected. . What kind of communication is going to get the best response, the most engagement, inspire the most parents to attend your event? For example, students can develop digital portfolios to access all of their college readiness work, resumes, informational interviews, essays for college and scholarship applications. And create a plan for managing email: decide how much time (and what period of time) you will devote to email. In the first weeks of school, some teachers engage with parents via email and online surveys to figure out the best way to communicate and give parents advice on how they can be involved with their students’ learning. Using Technology to Improve Parent-Teacher Communication Email. And how can you leverage the capabilities of the technology to improve this communication? Websites, emails, e-newsletters, specialized apps and other digital media let parents see the work their students do in class. And because the information resides on the cloud students can access it any place, any time. Do you need to make the messages more engaging? Technology (or at least, the right technology) gives you the opportunity to get instant feedback from parents who receive your messages. Want to Enter a School Building? While districts need to adjust, it’s not an insurmountable challenge because many of these technologies are in use already. During focus group discussions, teachers have told us they find that communicating with parents is now possible “24/7-anytime, anywhere.” Technologies like email, texts, websites, electronic portfolios, online surveys and video chat applications like Skype and Google Hangout … An engaging way for parents to be a ‘fly on the wall’ in the classroom. where paper-based just can’t compete, is interactivity. Here are a few ideas on how to effectively communicate with parents using technology.