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April 15, 2001
Talking to Parents Online
By Jeffrey Branzburg
This page is designed specifically with the new-to-technology educator in mind. Please feel free to reproduce this page for use in your teacher training sessions or other staff development efforts.
Increasingly, teachers are using computers and the Internet to maintain contact with parents, many through free Internet sites that act as "communications hubs" between the school and the home. Most of these sites offer a venue for teachers to post assignments, publish examples of student work, and send and receive messages from parents. Here's how they work.
Register and log in. To begin to use any of these sites, you first need to register with the service and log in. The site will provide you with space on their Web server so that you, your students, and their families can access the information you post. You will receive a password that allows you to add and change information on the site; the students and their families will receive passwords that allow them to read, but not add or change, information. They will not be able to read personal information regarding other students.
Set up your class list. If the site is only for posting assignments, this step will not be necessary. However, if individual information (such as e-mail and grades) is supported, then you will need to enter data about your class so that each student can access his or her unique information. Usually student names do not need to be used; some unique identification number can be specified so that anonymity is maintained.
Post your assignments. These sites offer quick and easy ways for you to add information. You do not need to know how to design Web pages yourself; all you do is complete a form on the screen and the assignments are posted.
Tell your students the location of your site. Usually all you need to do is give the generic address (such as myschoolonline.com), then students can go to the site and search for your page. When they access it, they can then bookmark the specific page on their home computer for future access. If your school or district has its own Web site, ask the Webmaster if he or she can link from it to your site-that way students and families need only go to the school or district home page and click to access your site.
A word of caution about using these sites: if they are not maintained regularly, they quickly lose effectiveness. It does not serve anybody well if the parent of an absent student logs on for the week's assignments and sees that the latest information is months old.
Here is a sampling of some of the more trustworthy offerings on the Web.
Bigchalk provides Web space where teachers can maintain a calendar, publish homework assignments, post images and student artwork, upload electronic files, link to standards-based Internet resources, and access fee-based research products and services such as eLibrary and ProQuest.
Myschoolonline provides Web space for teachers to post assignments, calendars, class policies, grades (on an ancillary site called mygradebook.com), and other important information. The site links to a reference section with such tools as an atlas, encyclopedia, almanac, and dictionary. A school fund-raising component is also included.
HighWired is specifically designed for high schools. Teachers can build a Web site for their classrooms, student activities, clubs, school newspaper, or entire school. Students can access homework assignments, school news and announcements, team scores, schedules and statistics, and even create their own student activity Web sites. Other services include Gradfinder, to find alumni; and College Pathfinder, where students and parents find information about selecting a college, getting in, and obtaining financial assistance-all with advice from college experts.
Schoolnotes.com allows teachers to create and post "notes" with homework and class information, which parents and students can view by entering the school ZIP code. These notes can include links to teacher-selected Web sites for curricular support, a "current events" button, and a form for parents to complete and submit as e-mail to the teacher.
Reprinted with permission from Technology & Learning.
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