Keeping lines of communication open between teachers and families is important. To support that, Lacey Merrifield, Director of Technology at Bosqueville ISD in Texas, created a communication app to achieve transparency in the community. Here we talk about how the app came to be, what it accomplishes, and how it helps mitigate over-communication.
Staying in consistent contact with your child’s teacher can keep you up to date with what’s going on in your child’s class, help you better understand a teacher’s way of teaching, and provide an answer when you need it the most. However, for many schools, keeping connected with what’s going on at a school has been left to the likes of Facebook. Lacey Merrifield thought of a better way to keep families connected with teachers without forcing them to be exposed to social media.
“We’re a really tiny district,” Merrifield says of her 750-student school community. “The main way they were communicating and getting information out was Facebook. At the end of every year we do a parent survey, a staff survey, a student survey, and one of the biggest things on the parent survey was that they had to actually get on social media when a lot of them avoid social media. I’d already wanted to redesign the school website and add communication to it. Our website was really outdated…and adding the app came from parents wanting to be able to avoid getting on social media [to stay connected].”
The Bosqueville ISD app acts as an extension of the updated website, which can also help keep parents connected if they find themselves without their phones or tablets.
For this effort and other work, Merrifield was recently honored with a Tech & Learning Innovative Leader Award for Innovative Director of Technology during a recent Tech & Learning Regional Leadership Summit.
Making Safety a Priority
Parents today now have higher levels of access to teachers through emails and text messages. Pushing that communication through a single platform can help organize the messages that a teacher can receive regularly, and allows for communication without sacrificing privacy and security.
“We don’t want our teachers texting,” Merrifield says. “This is on the app. That way our teachers aren’t giving out their numbers. They don’t have to get a Google number. They can still use their phone, but their privacy is protected. We’re still communicating, but it’s not intruding on personal boundaries.”
What if a teacher does not want the app on their own personal device?
“The cool part about this is that if a teacher doesn’t want to put the app on their phone, they don’t have to,” she says. “It’s a web-based app as well so they can do it all from their school computer.”
This can help to separate the working world from a personal life for teachers who feel the two may blend together too often. Keeping school-related apps and tools strictly on school devices (or separate devices if they are not school-issued) can create peace of mind for a teacher while also allowing for full focus when sending information to families or responding to an inquiry from a parent.
6 Steps To Put Together a Communication App
With the idea and the execution of the communication service running smoothly, it might seem like the Bosqueville ISD app was a walk in the park to make. However, it took strong collaboration with programmers and designers, as well as vocal opinions from the community itself, to help get this innovative moment off the ground.
“The number one thing was getting a needs assessment that came through our staff, student, and parent surveys,” Merrifield says. “Then we collaborated with Edlio, telling them what we wanted from [the service]. We had to test, and there were some glitches. Our Google Sign On didn’t work as it should have, things like that. Then we had launching and training. I think getting those in the right order [is important], because if you launch it and it doesn’t work, nobody wants to go back to it.”
Merrifield shares the step-by-step process that ensured the app achieved the proper goals and met the needs of her school community effectively.
Needs Assessment: “We began by gathering input from stakeholders, including teachers, parents, and students, to identify their communication needs and preferences,” Merrifield says. “This feedback guided our overall vision for the app.”
Collaboration with Edlio: “After defining our goals, we collaborated closely with Edlio's development team. They provided us with insights into the features and functionalities that could be incorporated, ensuring the app would align with our communication strategy.”
Design and Development: “Together with Edlio, we worked on the app's design, focusing on user-friendly navigation and an appealing interface. Edlio's team helped customize the app to reflect our school’s branding and unique needs.”
Testing and Feedback: “Before launching, we conducted thorough testing of the app with a small group of staff who were also parent users to gather feedback on functionality and usability. This step was crucial to identify any issues and make necessary adjustments.”
Launch and Training: “Once the app was finalized, we launched it to the staff first, then the rest of the community. We also provided training sessions for staff and parents to ensure they were comfortable using the app effectively.”
Ongoing Support and Updates: “After the launch, we established a system for ongoing support and periodic updates, ensuring that the app continues to meet the evolving needs of our community.”
The Hidden Ways A Communication App Helps a School
The main focus of the communication app is to keep teachers and families connected, but having that service can also have other benefits that are more uncommon but just as important.
“There are so many apps,” Merrifield says. “When I started here, we had a different company for door access, a different company for cameras, a different company for guest services. We’re also in the process of changing that. That’s been my thing coming in. I’ve tweaked a few things. Our guest services, cameras, and door access are all going to one company now.”
Combining multiple services into one convenient spot can save time, effort, and money. Doing so with the Bosqueville ISD app had a profound effect on other aspects of school life, not only influencing community communication, but also the consolidation of multiple school tools and functions into better managed situations.
