RP #9: District & School-wide Communication With The Community

In the article, “Tweeting The Night Away: Using Twitter To Enhance Social Presence, Dunlap and Lowenthal believe that online classes miss out on the impromptu interactions between students and teachers that build relationships.  In order to compensate for this loss, online classes benefit from exploring learning management systems and social media outlets in an effort to become familiar with the people involved in their education.  Web 2.0 tools such as Twitter can provide students with a variety of methods to express themselves to others, including audio, video, and written work.  Twitter is a great resource for educators and students because it can be used to link people with similar interests.  Teachers can support their curriculum in the social media setting, while students can construct meaning through the concepts they have learned in class.  While its most popular usage would be for social purposes, Twitter is a great professional tool for networking and sharing information as well.  Users have the ability to pose a question or link and get feedback from similarly minded people or professionals in the community.  Information is spread quickly and can be accessed from a phone or computer, which may be even more convenient for many people than a Learning Management System.  The 140 character limit encourages comments to articulate their words carefully. The authors feel that if students are invited to Tweet rather than required, they might be more willing to participate in an educational setting.  They also explains that Twitter results can be used to compile information for research papers and presentations. 

In the article, “Grassroots Development: How Teachers Use Twitter”, Forte, Humphreys, and Park study teachers who use Twitter.  Considered “Grassroots Professional Development,”  Twitter is a social media outlet that is great for communication with teachers, peers, and parents.  The authors conducted a Twitter teacher survey consisting of analyzation of 2,000 teacher tweets and phone interviews by survey responders.  The goal was to determine how social media is used for educational purposes, specifically Twitter.  Each tweet was divided into themed categories.  Trends in teacher tweet topics included professional development, classroom exercises, educational policies, and safety online.  The survey results suggest that teachers are not often linked to local colleagues on Twitter, gravitating more toward teacher acquaintances met online or in person.  The authors believe teachers who use web 2.0 tools are open to change and more reflective thinkers. Teachers were most likely to use hashtags to share resources, but many also participated in discussions.  Many of those surveyed reported using Twitter as a social outlet at first but then decided to use it for educational purposes.  It seems that many teachers still hesitate to get students involved online because their districts have restrictions on social media usage and/or they worry about internet safety.

The article, “What Parents Want In School Communication” summarizes a survey completed by the National School Public Relations Association to help teachers and administrators develop good strategies for communication with parents.  The results explained that parents prefer online methods of conveying information such as email, e-newsletters, websites, and automated text messaging.  Surprisingly, social media ranked low on parents’ lists of preferred communication along with board meetings and watching the news.  Results from the survey were differentiated slightly by parents of elementary and high school students.  While most parents regardless of grade level like to have progress reports, information on classroom policies, and grade notices, elementary parents prefer to have more behavioral information.  Secondary parents are more interested in the best ways to get in touch with their child’s teachers.  Parents of all grade levels enjoyed having access to event calendars, course descriptions, student safety information, and any general updates.  Author Anne O’Brien speculates that social media just might be too advanced for current parents.  She believes schools who have successfully implemented social media as a means of communication have thrived because they are open to parent feedback.  Regardless of the survey results, however, O’Brien stresses that it is important for each district to be aware of the communication needs of their individual student/parent population.  Social media notifications may be appropriate in some areas while not reaching enough families in another district. 

Brendan O’Keefe shares many ways districts can gain support from community members in his article, “Five Steps To Better School/Community Collaboration.”  He believes any successful district communicates well with the surrounding community and takes action to bring students and residents together.  It is important for teachers and administration to not only collaborate with parents but also students, seniors, and local businesses.  As the saying goes, “it takes a village to raise a child.” O’Keefe believes it is important to get community members involved in local education through mentorship programs, partnerships, and hands-on activities in the community that apply classroom curriculum.  O’Keefe suggests creating a community resource map that details people and businesses who are willing to help educational programs in the district.   Any time community members can collaborate with students and teachers on “reinventing” a school resource, it is a source of pride for the entire community and perpetuates more collaboration in the future. 

Reflection

In my personal experiences with social media as a means of communication, I find it very hard to find one method that all parents, teachers, and students are willing to use.  The only successful method I have seen in my own experiences is text message alerts, as described in the O’Brien article.  Most students and parents have phones, so this is an easy way to communicate with everyone.  During every new class, I ask students what forms of social media they have in a written survey.  Many have turned away from Facebook and use Instagram instead.  However, there are still many more who do not have any forms of social media.  This is often a reflection of parental concerns over internet safety.  My own informal survey confirms the suspicions described in the O’Brien article, that social media may be “too social” for current parents.  If students and parents were more willing to go on social media, I think they would be surprised and impressed by the educational capabilities of these web 2.0 tools.  I use my Facebook page, “Miss Meyers’ Art Class” to post reminders, local art events, student artwork, and cool artists that I find online.  It’s a fantastic tool!  Instagram is also easy to use.  Hashtags allow our work to be seen by a broader spectrum of people, links can still be posted, and plenty of student work can be seen.  I am lucky to work in a district where social media is accepted as an educational tool.  Our superintendent has a Twitter account, so I think this helps my case.  I recently met up with the alumni fundraising coordinator and discussed the need for a classroom social media directory for our district.  As O’Keefe mentioned, it is important to get the community involved in local education.  If a social media directory is put together, the fundraising coordinator can meet with local businesses owned by former students and show them the incredible things we are doing in our classrooms.  It might encourage them to be proactive in donating and volunteering in our schools!