1. Gerard Gielen Katholieke Hogeschool Limburg Limburg University College Hasselt Belgium e-CommunIC@Tion 4 Schools 2 Parents

2. Communication to parents is critical to success of children Communication between schools and families is essential for building trusting relationships that foster parental involvement. Parental involvement in schools and social institutes is necessary for youngsters to develop successfully and to make decisions that will have positive outcomes for their futures.

3. Building home-school partnerships is a powerful avenue for increasing the satisfaction of parents and the community with schooling and for improving schools. Parents' involvement in their child's education is a key factor in the child's scholastic success

4. Actual situation The communication between teachers and parents isn’t always very clear and intensive. Parents and teachers communicate mainly by means of the class diary/ written notes from school and by life contacts at the end of the schoolyear (report –results of the children) or open school days or fundraising activities. Teachers don’t have a good view on the participation of parents and vice versa. They see each other only when things are going wrong. Communication most often breaks down between home and school when the student tells their parents only part of the story and the parents do not probe for the rest of it. Misunderstandings can arise.

5. Parents are complaining that they get too little information of the school Traditional methods of communication such as face- to-face meetings have been found to be effective, however, these methods require time that both working parents and teachers lack. Educators are often very good at mass communications via newsletters, letters, and handbooks for their students, but don’t use it for connecting to parents. Educators must become effective at interpersonal communication with the target audience

6. Complaint : only contact once a year during the parent contact evening.

7. Society = large social community

8. E-Technology is everywhere…

9. If your kids are awake, they are online….

10. OLE …

11. Even the Pope is online…

12. eCommunication in the classroom

13. Research (Rogers & Wright, 2007) report usage of traditional modes of communication such as newsletters and telephone calls to be 75% opposed to newer technologies such as websites and e-mail which are both less than 15%. More research has to be done to evaluate the role of emerging e- technologies in enhancing communication practices between schools and parents. Little research…teachers don’t use it often for communication with parents !!!!

14. New ICT communications technologies can improve parental involvement in schools and social institutes. Innovative technologies such as social networks, e-mail, websites, blog, skype, sms, e-learning environments,…could provide schools with new tools for reaching parents and keeping them informed about their children. E-communication works but it isn’t used often.

15. Jacobs & Kritsonis (Texas A&M University,2007)

16. e-Communication 2 HOW ? Website : if the parent has a copy of the classroom expectations and evaluations, he can look all the time at the documents while discussing the issues. Sharing information by internet or learning environments can help parents and teachers to be more convenient.

17. Parents want to know who the teacher is, what’s he/she looks like and what his/her background is. Online information can help parents knowing better the competences of the teacher. Teachers can report progress of the children to the parents on a more suitable way by a safe learning environment, email, closed social networks, etc. Traditional reports can be replaced with regular and up-to-date online reports which parents can access whenever and wherever they happen to be.

18. For busy working parents and those whose work necessitates travel, online reporting could hold the key to ensuring that they are kept informed and up to date regarding their child’s progress.

19. Websites, blogs, email-messages, online newsbulletin can help for sensibilisation and activation of parents : f.i. healthy feeding, social projects around diversity and Third World, actions about cyberbullying, Internet guard, etc.

20. UK Online communication obliged ! 2010 is the deadline for all secondary schools in the UK to have a learning platform in place and be in position to offer parental access to online reporting In the online-report the teacher tells the parent if the child was considerable on school, if it behaved himself tidy and how it solved exercises and tasks carried out. An each day report is the idea of the British education minister Jim Knight, who started up the project. But, he warns, this replaces no school reports or parent evenings. (Het Laatste Nieuws, 10/02/2008).

22. Example of school website

23. Example of online report for parents 23

24. www.netmums.com 24

30. 30

31. Threat 1 Not all teachers are common with ICT technology and don’t know how to use e-mail, learning environments, can make websites, blog pages, have knowledge of internet security, ad-free blogging,etc. So when a school wants to start e-communication with parents they must first invest in training of the staff and invest in a good computer equipment. Teachers must also be trained in the correct and safe use of modern social communication networks like Facebook, Twitter, etc. and avoid ‘stupid’ or ‘illegal’ situations.

32. Good examples… 32

33. Did the parents give permission to use pictures of their children on the internet ? 33

34. Bad example : improper google ads on a free weblog. 34

35. Threat 2 Not all teachers will be convinced of the profits of online communication with parents. Teachers must have an open mind. There will be some teachers who really prefer not to share to many things with the outside world. ….open communication with parents includes opening the doors of the classroom. So this supposes the willingness of the teacher to share his information and methods with parents. It will be a long road to bring the educators in line with today's 'web 2.0' communications environment

36. Threat 3 Spreading online information by e-mail, websites, blogs, etc. demands a lot of time from the teacher. This work comes extra. Without digital communication the teacher only has to contact parents when there are problems or during school- parent meetings. Now he must spend lots of evenings behind his computer sharing information with parents, answering e-mails, making websites and blogs. This has to be included in his working schedule and may not become extra work or must be rewarded extra !

37. Threat 4 Parents must have a possession of a fast computer and access to the (fast) internet. They must have necessary programs (software) and the necessary knowledge to work with computer. Schools must avoid to create a new poverty gap in the school society : people who have fast computer and knowledge and people who don’t have computer or computer knowledge. Schools can help to bridge the digital gap. It would l be important to find ways to reach families without email access or find ways to provide them with cheap equipment.

38. Threat 5 Not all parents will be comfortable with technology and suitably ‘tech-savy’ to deal with online reporting. One way of educating and training parents could be via holding after-school lessons for parents where a teacher will explain use of the learning platform and demonstrate how parents can utilize online reporting to its full potential. For parents unable to attend after- school or evening training sessions there is scope for them to be trained online. Children can help the parents learning computer technology at home.

39. Cyberparents : parents help parents

40. Online guidance

43. Threat 6 Many educators are hesitant to use social networking tools in the classroom, owing to safety concerns, for privacy, for misunderstandings, hacking of passwords, stealing exams…. They are afraid that privacy is damaged when they put notes or grades from students online. This means that most of them are still not confident with Web 2.0 utilities. But of course there is always the possibility that something is going wrong in your parental contacts….

44. Nowadays the new technology provides schools and teacher very safe internet applications where privacy and safety is provided. Nevertheless, teachers and parents must be aware of potential dangers in using internet tools when they are nonchalant with passwords of sending e-mails Real example : a teacher sent a full behavior report of one child to all parents of the class instead of the parents of the child only….very embarrassed for the teacher : e-communication makes errors more easy !

45. Challenges It is essential to examine the possibilities and perspectives, but also the risks of using the modern communication technologies in communicating with parents. Research about the necessary elementary conditions in e- communicating with parents. Examine how schools, teachers and parents can made enthusiastic for using new e- communication technologies…. maybe the toughest part of all !

46. Important task for teacher training centres : they have to use modern e-technology in communications with their students and show them how to use it on the future communications with the parents of their pupils. Strategy for schools : think big, act small… Lesson for all : think before you click.

47. Future plan : e-communiC@Tlas www.myschoolonline.eu http://Ecom4s2p.mixxt.com