Engaging Parents
The number of bloggers writing about education, in particular technology in education, is huge. I have more than 30 in my feed-reader that I try to keep up with everyday and I’ve visited hundreds more over the last year. Teachers and technology leaders are definitely engaged in the conversation of learning in the 21 century.
But where are the parents? I’ve seen a few blog commentators that look at things from the perspective of a parent, and of course many teachers/tech leaders are parents too, but it is rare to find people outside the school involved in the conversations.
There is one group of people I’ve found trying to change that. Lorna Costantini, Matt Montagne and Rhoda Cipparone host a webcast called “Parents as Partners” at EdTechTalk. They are using webcasts and associated chat rooms to bring parents together to discuss parent involvement and how social networking tools can help parents support education. (Lorna’s blog found at ourschool.ca has more information on past and future guests and some great links too.)
This webcast truly is a means of using “tools of engagement” when you want, where you want, and how you want. You can listen live or later on, you can chat in the back channel or not, and you can follow the links that are provided to learn more if you choose.
The next webcast is scheduled for March 17 - I’ll be there, will you?
Welcome to the blogsphere and helping me connect the dots between parents and teachers. I am thrilled to have another blogger focus on supporting parents. “the parents are out there”. chauffeuring kids, tying shoes laces, and checking home work. They have not been shown the value of online social networking as a support mechanism. The exact opposite. Fear mongering chases a lot of people away. As in any new endeavour, it takes the personal touch. Please invite as many parents as you know to comment and join in the discussions at ourschools.ca and listen to the webcasts. We are in ground breaking territory. Welcome aboard.
Comment by Lorna Costantini — March 14, 2008 @ 3:43 pm
[...] she found me on the web through her own personal network and searching on the net. Third that she blogged about the Parents as Partners webcasts and this web site. Fourth she had tried to complete the [...]
Pingback by The Power of the Internet in promoting parent involvement — Parents as Partners — March 14, 2008 @ 4:40 pm
Thanks for commenting on my blog post at Technology for Learning.
I am a grad student, a K-12 technology director, and a parent, and also following carefully Lorna’s work and the podcasts (they’re great).
In addition to my blog, I am also hosting a wiki at Parent 2.0. The wiki is open to membership and I would love for you to join. It is quite new, and looking for folks to add content, links and discourse. A couple of pages that are locked will be open for additional content next month. The focus is for parents and teachers working together in a technology enabled-world. There is much research about parent involvement and/or engagement but little about the role technology does (or does not) play.
I look forward to more dialogue, and hope many attend the next parents as Partners podcast.
Cindy Seibel
Comment by rdrunner — March 15, 2008 @ 10:03 pm