Blog Post # 5

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

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

How do these tools improve communication?

Teachers should use technology to communicate with students, parents, and peers because it is the ever present center of all communication and entertainment for the majority of people in the World.  Now more than ever technology has brought the impossible, possible.  Through one tiny phone one is able to control just about everything in their lives.  It can hold their daily planner, it can pay their bills, hold coupons, surf the web and become a video game.  The main source of communication of people in our world today, is through text messages and other multi media features.  Since the general population is all communicating with each other through technology, why should education be treated any differently?  Because most people have access to the internet at the tip of their finger, it would be extremely useful to use technology to update parents and students on upcoming events, homework and grades.  In this day and age, people’s lives often center around the technology that surrounds them, so why not use that to your advantage as a teacher?  

With technology changing everyday, there are tons of options on how to best improve the overall communication between teachers and others.  A blog is a very helpful thing to use because you can make it as simple or as complex as you want.  A blog is a very good tool to use to show parents what is going on in your classroom.  You can post pictures of the students working at their desk or post pictures from the classroom field trip to the zoo.  This will help improve communication between teachers and others because you are essentially opening up your doors for all to see.  Teachers will be able to get ideas from others that could in turn improve the overall collaboration between teachers.  It will also help improve the communication between the teacher and the parent.  For some parents they are not able to be in the classroom as much as they wish they could so to have a visual of what their students are doing in class, helps them feel more involved in their child’s education.  Another tool that would be very useful to use is email.  Because most people are constantly checking their email, it will great a really quick and easy way to communicate with other teachers and parents.