Connecting parents to the classroom using Web 2.0 tools

[Lorna Costantini]

Over the past year, I have written several posts in my personal blog about connecting parents to the classroom using technology. Despite the good efforts of numerous advocates, it still remains that very few parents are engaging in the use of tools available to them. Many teachers are not using tools such as blogging and social networks to link parents to the classroom. I know that the issues are still centred on parent, teacher and administrator training and their understanding of web 2.0 tools.

Administrators demonstrate a fear of using resources such as YouTube, Voice Thread and Facebook and this fear is reinforced by parent concerns. Instead of embracing the power of these tools, filters and restrictions are in place to stop students from using these Internet tools to enhance their learning in the classroom. Despite these limitations in the school environment, our students are spending more time writing online outside the classroom than inside the classroom with out direction and often without supervision.

Please watch this video , then answer these questions: Do you think that students should have access to web 2.0 tools at school? What will help to answer these challenges?

[Michelle Pepe]

I didn't even get through the whole video, the point is clear. It would be a huge mistake to not capitalize on the internet aspect of our society and gear it towards our children in terms of education. Times have changed, we will have to think broader to captivate the full potential of our children. My son is 5 and his computer skills are unimaginable, he knows all things start www. , he plays so many learning games where to be honest with you he doesn't always realize he is learning. Don't get me wrong, because of technology like the internet some skills will be delayed and hopefully not lost (ie: simple letter writing, actual book research) but lets be honest with ourselves its only because it can be done on the cpu and that is the new required skill. If we put the proper monitored online tools in place for our children I do believe they will thrive- they are going online anyway lets at least give them a better reason- I am all for these type of tools becoming accessible in the classroom, by educators, and of course our students.

[Rob Horgan]

Hi Lorna,

Web 2.0 technology is a MUST in my books!

There are some serious security concerns however. The primary concern is that students are safe from outside contact. Consider that volunteers in our schools typically have at least one interview with a school official, possibly a teacher, and of course a criminal reference check. Parents and students should also expect that students working from school are working in a secure environment when working online.

TeacherTube vets their videos and are much more strict with their content than YouTube and as a result is usually accessible from most schools. Blogging and social networking is also available but through more secure platforms, typically hosted by schools or organizations that provide such environments specifically for the educational community.

Research supports that it is not so much the technology itself that is important but rather that students are constructing, publishing, and interacting with others through technology.

Another problem is time for teachers to learn, create, and maintain related sites for students. There is hardly enough time in the year to cover the curriculum, let alone to go in depth with major concepts. It takes a sizable investment of time and professional development for teachers to go it alone. With only four-five days per year for professional development, there is little time for teachers to learn about the technology and how to use it.

Lots of questions with few answers right now I'm afraid. No doubt, it is great to see students and teachers taking full advantage of the technology; it is frustrating that the educational system is taking longer than society to get up to speed.

[Lorna Costantini]

Hi Rob
You raise some very good points and identify key issues that are limiting teachers ability to move to a 21st century classroom. So I pose this question. What can parents actively do to help support their children and the classroom teacher to address these issues? - and
I give this challenge. Are you ready to fill the gap?

[John Borst]

Lorna,

Great video, thanks for sharing I will post it at my blog but I was wondering if you were aware of Edublogs (LINK HERE). I just learned of it. $900 US buys support and space for 100 blogs for a school or school system using wordpress. Are you aware of any board or school/teacher using this service with students?

Rob, thanks for the reference to Teacher Tube, I will check it out.

At the end of the video, a question is asked about Gov't and board policy to incorporate Web2 into learning. Any ideas? I think I could generate a resolution for OCSTA trustees to consider at their 2009 AGM...hmmm

At one time many moons ago OISE had people working in Computers in the Classroom? Is that still occurring? Also does anyone know if the amount of time Faculties of Ed give to Web2, and Computers in Education has increased over this decade. I won't put a lot of money on yes.

It is awfully hard to get a fully loaded slow moving train to change direction. How do we learn to move from tracks to water where we can turn around a supertanker on a dime.

[Lorna Costantini]

Thanks for those good comments John. Although money is always an issue, there are bigger issues than dollars in this discussion. Edublogs is a good free service for teachers and I know many teachers who are using this service. Matt Montagne and I discussed the issues in our k12online presentation.

I believe that parents should look for opportunities to educate themselves and become familiar with the tools that students are using. In that way they would be fully prepared to encourage and support teachers as they also adjust to the learning curve ahead.

[Lorna Costantini]

Hello again John.
I have lots of discussion happening at another blog about the ins and outs of the resources available and I am thinking that this technical discussion may not the purpose of this site. Could the moderator let me know how best to proceed with this discussion.

[Jan Sugerman]

Hello Lorna
This is Jan and Gay responding. It seems like a great discussion you have going here. Is there a particular reason you think a technical discussion wouldn't belong here, perhaps we have missed something? It seems like it is all learning to us!

[Lorna Costantini]

Thanks Jan and Gay. I appreciate your comments and support. Please feel free to stop me at any time. I have written a considerable amount of material about blogging and connecting schools at www.classroomblogging.com so from time to time, I will take the conversation there because I just can't rewrite all the content. I am appreciative of your support for this topic. I have always seen it as a frustration that money stops communication online. With that in mind classroomblogging.com is designed to give parents the tools they need to set up their own online community - either as a blog or ning network or others. Any one with a little training can use these free and available tools to publish their content on the Internet.

"Schools at the center" "ning"" - the software platform used in the People for Education online community is one of the easiest applications to use. The number of new members joining this community in the past few weeks clearly supports what I am saying. It is so exciting to see the membership grow so quickly. It may have gone unnoticed by some new members that they have access to their own blog as part of their profile. Users can create their own content as well as join in discussions.

Now returning to the discussion about web 2.0 tools. Please read this blog post about an incident in Australia that saw a classroom blog being shut down. It ignited an interesting conversation about using social networking in the classroom and the role that parents play. Please try out the voice thread application at the end of the post.

[Rob Horgan]

Hey John,

Faculties of Education have varying ranges of commitment to the integration of information and communications technology (ICT) in the classroom Web 2.0 or otherwise. This is my primary area of research in my Ph.D. studies and I've been reviewing quite a bit of the literature to date.

Unfortunately, there does not appear to be any formal curriculum expectations for preservice teachers to become ICT literate based on documents from the Ontario College of Teachers that accredit Faculties of Ed. in Ontario.

FYI WordPress is free with a number of web hosting packages. For about $80 year they can set up an entire learning community online with blogs, wiki, file sharing, etc. As you mentioned, the challenge is planing for and coping with change.

[John Borst]

I just want to say a huge thank you to Lorna and Rob and everyone here for getting me deeply into exploring Web2 tools beyond blogs.

I started off in discussion groups at yahoo back in 2000. That really laid the ground work for blogging in 2006. In February, I tried Twitter but it made no sense. But as a result of [e-mail], I went back and tried it again. Strange the key was the 140. I thought it was words. Once I discovered it was characters, it began to make some sense. It also helped that I learned how to make contacts.

I have also investigated wiki's. Now that looks promising. I have a project I want to work on. I want it to be closed to just the people invited to work on the project. Which of those formats (or suggest another) would be the most secure to work on a joint presentation.

I have also been all over the map with other education blogs.Again thanks; I registered at International Edubloggers Directory Lots of opportunity to contact many educators working in the Web2 environment like you, even a couple working in Catholic schools.

Lorna, I have conceptualized a resolution for OCSTA AGM; will share will you in direct e-mail after further investigation.

Rob could you elaborate with samples, on "For about $80 year they can set up an entire learning community online with blogs, wiki, file sharing, etc".

It has been a very steep learning curve week. I also love the change to edit. Wish all blog comments permitted that opportunity.

[Lorna Costantini]

If I may I will let Rob talk about Wordpress. Personally for my personal use I love Wordpress. However, I would like to speak out for this ning format again. It can be entirely password protected or as needed - defined discussion groups can be kept private. I find for the non techies the ning is easier. The wikispace has a little greater learning curve. Glad you like twitter. Don't forget about searching out archived sessions at edtechtalk.com There is a tremendous amount of information there as well.

Looking forward to hearing from you on the OCSTA resolution.

[Gay Stephenson]

John,
You might also take a look at wetpaint.com
It's free. It's fairly straightforward to use and you can create a public site or a private one, by invitation only. I've experimented with it as a way of writing group reports. It has a wiki feature, comments and accepts attachments to pages. If you are setting up for educational purposes, you can make a request to have the ads removed. (Which they have done for me both times I used it).
Great info sharing here - I'm going to check out Wordpress now too, on Rob's suggestion!