Technology for Learning

The Parents as Partners webcast had a very lively conversation tonight about Parents and Web 2.0 tools. So lively that I wanted to capture some of the great ideas while they were fresh in my mind.

Steve Hargadon of Classroom 2.0 was the guest tonight on Lorna Costantini’s hosted webcast. The chatroom was filled with parents and teachers and the ideas were flying.

There are several challenges to using Web 2.0 tools to support engagement with parents, but there were equally several ideas to meet those challenges:

• Parents don’t know what Web 2.0, blogs, wikis, nings, or any of that is.
• Teachers aren’t all comfortable with the tools.
• Parents want to personally connect about their own child.
• Teachers would be overwhelmed with emailing every parent.
• Showing parents the tools and/or the work isn’t enough.
• Classrooms shouldn’t appear as islands in the school – engagement should be a whole school community endeavour.

Here are some of the strategies discussed:

• Start with email from the teacher to the parent. Include links to sites/places of interest. Gradually move the parents to more communal sites, reserving email for that personal conversation.
• Send instructions for students to show their parents in their own home. Could be “how-to” access a blog or wiki. Could be just showing parents the work that is done online.
• Establish parent-only hands-on training evenings/Saturdays at school run from time to time. Teach parents about some basic Web 2.0 items – blogs, wikis, RSS.
• Conduct parent surveys at the beginning of the school year to assess where parents are in knowledge of Web 2.0.
• Encourage parent online communities by showing them free tools and advertising through school communications.
• Provide training for teachers in Web 2.0 tools.
• Showcase successful teacher/parent Web 2.0 communications and engagement strategies.

It is apparent that there is no single approach. Just as there are various kinds of parental involvement, from volunteering to learning at home to collaborating with the community*, there are various ways to approach engaging parents with Web 2.0 tools. I think there are two key points: first understand why parents want to engage, and second, support school staff in the training and use of tools that will assist with parents engaging.

Then check out all these great ideas for implementation.

*see Dr. Joyce Epstein’s work at the National Network of Partnership Schools.