Blog Post Five

Driving Questions Revisited:

Why should teachers use technology to communicate with students, parents, and peers? 

      
        Technology provides teachers with a large opportunity to connect with students, parents, and peers outside of the classroom. It can help lessen the gap between the classroom and the home. Often times students may describe their school days as "boring" or when asked what they did, they may say "nothing." These responses are deceptive to the families and do not properly represent the accomplishments in the classroom. By creating a classroom blog (and actively updating it) parents are able to see what happens in the classroom. They can follow along through the blog and participate in a virtual classroom. Technology can also help assess the different learning levels that students are at. By using different programs you can measure where students are and find a specific way to best help them. Lastly, using technology has proven to be very effective among peers. By using Google Docs or sharing different documents and programs, teachers are able to share their successful lessons with their peers. If the lesson proved to be effective then it would be beneficial to students to share it with coworkers.

Which technology tools have the greatest potential to improve communication between teachers and others? 

AND How do these tools improve communication?

         I think the most effective technology tool to improve communication between teachers and students is Edmodo. This online classroom is simplistic and easy to navigate. It allows a safe environment for students to participate in group discussions, as well as individual discussions with the instructor. Though Edmodo students are able to easily submit projects and receive grades. Using the program Digo or Diigolet teachers are able to provide direct feedback on the students work. This allows precise correction or praise, and the opportunity to remove comments so that they do not clutter the paper.
        Effective technology tools for communication between teachers and parents is Blogger. As I said in the question above, the blog provides a virtual classroom for the parents to follow along. This can also help develop the students at-home-learning-environment. Parents can participate in the lessons and continue the learning at home. The blog serves as an effective way to send out the News Letter. This can easily be created in Desktop Publisher. Although hard copies should always be available, it allows parents to stay up-to-date with classroom activities and there is not the concern of losing the paper copy news letter.
        Lastly, I find the AuthorStream to be a great technological asset. I have experienced the panic of exceeding email capacity with my PowerPoints, and AuthorStream solves this problem. It allows anyone to view the slide show, even if they do not have the program that it was created on. This can be used by parents and students to progress the at-home learning environment.