Type 2
Issue No. 16
Spring 2004

Elementary School Report: Seven Ways to Use Technology to Involve Families in Children’s Education

by Karen Clark Salinas, Elementary School Facilitator

Technological advances have rapidly changed the ways we communicate with others. As part of this evolution, schools can use technology to communicate with families more frequently and efficiently and to help families support students’ learning at home. Consider implementing the following seven ways to increase family and community involvement using technology.

Technological advances have rapidly changed the ways we communicate with others. As part of this evolution, schools can use technology to communicate with families more frequently and efficiently and to help families support students’ learning at home. Consider implementing the following seven ways to increase family and community involvement using technology.

  1. Multimedia Messages. Diverse methods of sharing information help increase the ease and frequency of school-to-home communications. For example, schools can share with parents a videotape and/or audiocassette of a workshop they were unable to attend. Schools can also use automated phone messaging systems to alert families about unexpected early dismissals, report cards, and reminders to vote in the school board election. Finally, schools can offer a homework helpline which allows students and their parents to hear information about current assignments anytime.
  2. Skills Training. A true learning community increases everyone’s opportunities to use technology. Schools can offer workshops that increase parents’ and students’ computer skills and provide crucial information on Internet safety. Schools also can open their computer labs to families for use during non-school hours and lend laptops for use at home.
  3. E-mail. Schools can use e-mail to efficiently increase two-way communication between school and home. For example, teachers can e-mail families to share information about homework and to provide positive feedback about students’ performance. The PTA/PTO can e-mail families with school board contact information so that families can give their opinions on important school and district issues. E-mail enables more families to communicate frequently with their children’s teachers and voice their opinions without the constraints of time, location, or trepidation of speaking face-to-face.
  4. Internet. Individual teachers, schools, districts, and the state can provide helpful information on their web sites to cover topics ranging from explanations of the curriculum to schools’ performance on state and standardized tests. Teachers may suggest web sites to help students complete homework and provide extra practice or extensions of the curriculum. Counselors may suggest web sites for middle and high school students and their families to explore postsecondary education and careers.
  5. Electronic portfolios and webfolios. The beauty of electronic portfolios and webfolios is two-fold. They provide families with a more detailed picture of their students’ achievements than test scores and grades can do alone, because students share multimedia examples of their work. Electronic portfolios and webfolios also can serve as the focus of parent-teacher-student conferences, providing students a role in building partnerships between school and home.
  6. WebQuests. WebQuests are an inquiry-oriented activity for students using the Internet. The activities are curriculum-linked, engaging, and interactive. Interestingly, well-designed interactive homework activities have the same qualities (See TIPS on p. 2). Teachers can adapt traditional WebQuests so that they involve families and students in a purposeful activity using the Internet.
  7. Technology Committee. By taking a leadership role on the school’s technology committee, parents can help explore additional technology options. For example, parents can help find ways to increase students’ hands-on opportunities with technology applications and increase teachers’ use of technology in the classroom.

There are other innovative practices in addition to the seven listed here. Undoubtedly, the future holds even more opportunities. As exciting as the possibilities are, however, two important issues must be considered.

First, not all families have the access, the skills, or the opportunities to use technology to participate in their children’s education. Schools must always provide alternatives to electronic ways of communicating and supporting students’ learning at home. Schools can blend traditional methods with newer technologies to inform and involve all families in their children’s education.

Second, the use of technology to involve families is part of a comprehensive, goal-oriented school, family, and community partnership program linked to student success. Technology is a means, not an end, to increase family involvement.

A longer version of this article will appear in the May 2004 issue of Access Learning published by Cable in the Classroom. See www.ciconline.org/accesslearning.