Something that came up a lot in our recent parent surveys at school was the use of digital communication to involve parents in their child's education. This is something relevant at the moment, with programmes like 'seesaw' or 'dojo' and is something I would love to inquire into. Something like.... 'how do digital communication tools impact on parents' involvement in their child's learning?'
One 'issue' I have is my working relationships with whanau, especially as a New Entrant teacher. I ring parents, write notes to them or text them on our school phone, but never about their child's learning; always a message about behaviour or a reminder. We all know that positive home-school relationships and productive partnerships strengthen children's learning and success, especially for Maori (Ministry of Education, 2013). Is digital communication the more effective means? Will using digital communication tools to share children's learning enhance achievement?
Linked to is parents, staff and children's understandings of the use of digital technology as a tool for learning. Another inquiry... although I'm not sure how to word it. Also in our recent survey, many parents said they did not want nor see the need for children to use digital technology at primary school. This is a big issue for me as I become the lead teacher for digital technology next year. Do parents understand the purpose for digital technology? In a school with little digital tools and little use of what we do have, how do I support staff and families to see the importance of digital technology in learning as I have from this course?
As Sweeney (2015) discusses, we have set up Communities of Practice within our school this year, by setting up teaching teams of similar year levels, rather than syndicates. Each team has an inquiry (as well as individual inquiries that contribute the team inquiry). I think what is missing though is that we do not 'nurture the group' (Knox, 2009). I believe we still work on our own. Knox (2009) says that CoP is about what matters for the members, and ultimately for our children; that CoP need a sense of identity, which again is missing from our team.
Because these inquiry topics are coming from our community voice, I hope that by making time to work collaboratively with my team, and perhaps developing a team inquiry in these areas, we can create that identity and a shared domain of our practice (Wegner, 2000). With effective collaboration, this will benefit all (Sweeney, 2015). I have truely valued working collaboratively on the course thus far and have learned so much more I believe, than if I did it on my own. Sharing or leading my team in these inquiries will also support their knowledge and understanding of digital technology as a tool for learning.
References:
Knox, B. (2009, December 4).Cultivating Communities of Practice: Making Them Grow.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhMPRZnRFkk
Ministry of Education. (2013). Ka Hikitia: Accelerating Success 2013-2017. Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Education.
Sweeney, R. (2015). Building collaborative Teaching as Inquiry teams using spiral of Inquiry. Retrieved from http://blog.core-ed.org/blog/2015/06/building-collaborative-teaching-as-inquiry-teams-using-spirals-of-inquiry.html
Wenger, E.(2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organization,7(2), 225-246.
It was really interesting reading about your experiences as new entrant teacher as it, on the surface seems so different to my journey as a secondary school teacher. The issue of communicatin with parents, which you seem to do so much of, compared to me, is always a big one. Are we these days expecting all parents/caregivers to have access to digital devices? As soon as we limit communication to text messages or emails we are making this assumption. I like your approach of the communication always being about reminders/information/behaviour and never being about learning. I do think those types of communcations should be done more in person.
ReplyDeleteYour second point about the use of digital devices and the opinions of parents is a big issue. I think the media plays an important part in changing how we percieve thier value in education. Some days they are the best thing over, other days they should be banned completely. Who is right? Is there a right answer? A great idea for a community of learning inquiry project.
Hi Helen, thank you for your thoughts. I agree that face to face would be great but in our school, and especially in my class, I see very few parents and struggle to make times to see them believe it or not - even in a NE classroom! How do you best involve and encourage parents in their child's learning? We are a low decile school and yes I agree, we make that assumption (using digital communication) but with the survey response, many families commented on how much they liked the digital communication from teachers already beginning to use it. I guess it's down to the school community and as teachers we need to be aware of the most effective communication for our families.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely media plays a part in how we view the importance of technology - I agree, it would be a great inquiry project!
Danielle, I've enjoyed reading your blog! I'll be so interested to hear the outcome of your inquiry if you choose to delve into how digital communication tools impact parent involvement. Will you measure the impact by the amount and type of responses you get if you utilise a program like Class Dojo or Seesaw?
ReplyDeleteKia ora Danielle, Great perspective on the barriers to implementing digital technology into the classroom. It's interesting that the overall consensus from whanau was an unwillingness to see technology integrated into the classroom. It would be interesting to delve further into whether or not the parents who responded this way had a clear understanding of the true impact on teaching students these digital literacy skills. I wonder if there are some preconceived ideas around the use of devices and if some further investigation would unearth some misconceptions? Good luck with your ICT lead teacher role!
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