I have been quite surprised to see in the course of my research into a classroom blog that many parents do not see the blog as having any value or purpose for them. Most are happy that their kids are using it and excited about it, but for many it is “the kids thing”. I wonder how universal this feeling is? I also wonder if parents who wok full time and have less access to schools on a regular basis, feel the same way as those parents who have regular contact through the school anyway when they pick their kids up or drop them off each day. Would like to investigate this further.
I have just read Derek Wenmoths blog about enough excuses for why teachers are digitally illiterate. I agree that there are still some digitally illiterate teachers out there, but I think the ICTPD contracts have done a lot to change that. I totally agree with Paul Wilkinsons comment though about the lack of equipment in some schools. There are huge discrepancies between those schools who have IT equipment and those who do not. Does the government fund any IT equipment for students at all? If they really want to “Enable our 21st Century Learners” they must address this issue. This issue was brought home to me when I enrolled my 8 year old in a new school as we are shifting towns. She is leaving a very technologically capable school, where she is used to using smart boards, laptops etc on a daily basis and going to a school with not a single student laptop, one computer per classroom and one data projector for the school. She is understandably devastated by this. There isn’t much equality of opportunity across the country for our students when you see this.
It is exciting when you see someone take on board a new idea. My daughter’s class have just started a new classroom blog, which as a parent I think is very exciting. I enjoy reading my daughter’s and her classmates entries. It really does add another dimension to the home school relationship when parents can interact and support their children’s learning in this way.
The classroom blog I am researching is really starting to take off now too. I will be giving the parents a questionnaire about it next week. The good thing is that I can trial the questionnaire out with some parents from my daughters class tomorrow, now that their blog is up and running. It will be interesting to see if the questions need modifying or whether they give me the kind of information I am looking for.
I love the way I can collaborate with different classrooms. I got an email this week from a parent whose son’s class has a class blog in Queenstown. She gave me some really valuable feedback about the usefulness of the blog for her, including comments like the saving of paper, when you can access all the information online - a great spinoff for the planet.
