Technology instruction is vital to today’s students, and parental involvement is a key component to their success. It leads to all kinds of benefits like increased student achievement, higher graduation rates, better behavior and attendance, and a higher number of students going to college. Like technology immersion, parental involvement suffers in the socio-economic divide. Hohlfeld (2010) suggests that one factor that positively influences parental involvement is school use of information and communication technology (ICT). He and his colleagues observe that there is a correlation between school population SES and the number of ICT methods employed. Elementary and middle schools with low SES provide more resources than their higher SES counterparts, but the reverse is true of high schools. Here higher SES schools provide more resources than their counterparts.
So what can schools do to provide the technical communication and resources needed by their students? Most schools now have websites to provide information to their stakeholders (Hohlfeld, 2010), but there are many other tools that can be employed in addition. In our district, in addition to our website, we have automatic phone messages and emails that can be pushed to our parents and students for special announcements. Many of our teachers use Remind101 to send text message reminders about upcoming quizzes, labs, work due, etc. to their students and parents. Other effective communication tools are blogs, podcasts, and vidcasts.
Communication is not the only key to our students’ success. Access to resources and training in their use is a vital component in closing the digital divide. At my school, students have access to online databases and GALILEO for academic research and they receive training in these tools from their media specialist and teachers. Students have access to computers for an hour before and an hour after school each day and can use computers with a teacher pass at any point during the day. The media specialist is always there for support if students need help. Some schools have the financial resources to go further and allow students to check out devices to use at home. Schools without these resources have other options. They can partner with community members to provide off-campus access to technology and to involve them in the technology planning process. There have been times when members of our community wanted to donate computers to the school, but we were unable to take advantage of this gift due to our strict technology donation policy. After reading the articles for this module, however, I see how working with community members can be an advantage. The next time computers are offered to my school I will take them, develop a circulation policy, and allow students to borrow these devices for home use. I will do my part to provide equitable access to all students in my school.
References
Barron, B., Walter, S. E., Martin, C., & Schatz, C. (2010). Predictors of Creative Computing Participation
and Profiles of Experience in Two Silicon Valley Middle Schools. Computers & Education, 54(1),
178-189.
Hohlfeld, T. N., Ritzhaupt, A. D., & Barron, A. E. (2010). Connecting Schools, Community, and Family
with ICT: Four-Year Trends Related to School Level and SES of Public Schools in Florida.
Computers & Education, 55(1), 391-405.
Rideout, V., & Common Sense Media. (2011). Zero to eight : Children's media use in America. San
Francisco, CA: Common Sense Media. Retrieved April 9, 2014.