Final Project

When I began thinking about my final project I tried to identify an area where technology would make a positive impact and improve my practice. I found that I was struggling a bit with effective parent communication, including gathering their input and ideas and receiving feedback. Parent involvement is one of the most important and valued aspects of the Head Start program. Not only has it shown to improve a child’s school experience but it also equals money for the program. As part of this, I send home a questionnaire each month asking parents for curriculum ideas and what they would like their child to work on. Since many of my students take the bus, it is difficult to know when a paper makes it home (I rarely receive my questionnaires back). After watching the presentations in class on all of the digital tools, I thought Survey Monkey would be a great way to gather and document this information more effectively. After thinking about it further, I realized that I could convey even more information to parents by creating a digital newsletter as well. I thought that Glogster would be a fun and creative way to make a newsletter that could also incorporate the parent survey.

To get started, I created accounts on both Glogster and Survey Monkey. I had never used either before so I did a bit of exploring on each site before deciding what each would look like. I found both sites to be very user friendly and I can see myself using them for my monthly newsletter. I may also look into Google forms and experiment with their surveys since I found some of their features to be more appealing. In my newsletter, I included various sections for reminders, what’s happening in our classroom, important dates, resources for parents and kids, and my contact information. I was also able to embed a hyperlink to my parent survey. I would like to send the same survey on a monthly basis but also include other surveys as necessary. This could include a survey to gather feedback at the end of the school year. In addition to hyperlinks, Glogster also allows you to embed videos. I hope to use this feature in a future newsletter.

My plan is to gather the e-mail addresses of all parents at the beginning of the school year. I will explain that I will send out a monthly newsletter where I will ask for their opinions as well as keep them informed about what is happening in school. I will also need to translate my newsletter and survey into Spanish as there is large population of Spanish speaking families in our school community. If a parent does not have an e-mail address or Internet access they will be able to use computers at the school. This year we will have a room set up with computers that parents will have access to. Here they can create an e-mail address and check the newsletter. In a case where this is also not possible, I can print the newsletter and survey to send home.

Although my project was based on digital tools to use with parents I will still look for ways to also use some of these tools, when appropriate, with my students. Today’s kids are growing up completely immersed in technology, making them what Marc Prensky calls “digital natives.” This challenges us as teachers, especially if we are “digital immigrants,” to adapt to the changing needs of our students. In class, we discussed the many ways in which technology influences today’s world. As technology grows and becomes more and more advanced, we need to find ways to incorporate it into our classroom. I feel as though it is important to give students opportunities to have these experiences in school, especially if they would not otherwise have them. As Sugata Mitra explained in “School in the Clouds,” children will learn and excel if the technology and time is available to them.

As we discussed in class, there are also some downsides to the growing use of technology. Sherry Turkle discussed the idea of being “alone together.” Children grow up with texting and social media as the norm in terms of communication. There is a lack of face-to-face communication and therefore the ability to hold a conversation suffers. Children and even adults feel as if they cannot be without their smart devices for the fear that they might miss something. There is a constant desire to be “connected,” to texting or social media, even in a room full of people. This illustrates the important role that parents and teachers have to set limits with the technology that kids are using. Another issue revolves around media and digital culture. Messages about what kids should look like, have, and do are sent through TV, films, advertising, and music, among others. These messages have the power to shape children’s ideas about the world. It is important that parents and educators are informed and aware of what kids are exposed to. They must then teach them to think critically about what they are seeing. Although there are so many benefits of technology in the lives of kids, these are just some examples of how it still must be monitored.

I can see how all of the technology introduced in this class, including tools and resources, could be extremely useful for students and teachers. Although my students now may be too young to use some of them, I definitely have put them all into my technology toolbox. When I began this course I felt as if I was straddling the line that separates a digital native from a digital immigrant. After all of our class discussions and learning about the various digital tools available I can see that I may be leaning more on the side of digital immigrant. But as Dr. Susan Patterson discussed, I am cautiously optimistic about the newfound skills and tools I have acquired for my personal and professional life.