Blog Entry: Mod 2
Course Management Systems
Prior to my acceptance into Rivier's doctoral program, I had no exposure to course management systems such as Canvas. I have to say that these systems are extremely helpful to someone like me, who struggles with organization. I almost always have access to Canvas or Blackboard through my desktop, laptop, or even phone, so accessing the information I need to plan out assignments, receive announcements from instructors, or check my grades is easy. This provides me with a feeling of security- I don't have to go hunting for the syllabus buried somewhere in my desk or bag (or lost) to tell me this blog entry is due tomorrow. With a few clicks I can see the whole course plan laid out.
I would love to see more teachers use these platforms for their courses, starting as early as middle school. This would facilitate communication with students and families. It would end any confusion around when something was due, and help parents teach their children independence around keeping up with homework, projects, papers, and exams. Students and families could get real time feedback around grades, and we may be able to do away with needless paperwork during progress report time. The only problem with this idea is that there are some parents who don't have consistent access to the internet, so some allowance needs to be made to keep other lines of communication open. However, the idea of a parent clicking on their child's Canvas courses is exciting to me.
Another positive possible outcome is that colleagues could access each other's Canvas sites and coordinate lessons, assignments, and schedules. As a special educator, this would be an incredibly helpful tool. I could easily access my students' progress in their mainstream classes, check to see if assignments were completed, and give my students timely feedback on their performance and a plan to improve. Sometimes special educators are left in the dark, unintentionally, regarding their students day to day performance. With the easy availability of course management systems, this seems completely avoidable.
The challenge to incorporating a CMS in a public school would be getting teachers to buy into them and update them regularly. The capability of providing timely feedback is useless if teachers do not regularly attend to updating the CMS. We have this issue now with a program called Edline, which simply displays students' grades as teachers enter them, and parents can access this one "window" with the grades listed. It has been a challenge for two years to get all teachers updating them once a week, and we still haven't met that goal.
The first study I considered was a dissertation done in Texas on the relationship between schools and families. One of the most important recommendations the author writes about is that schools need to change their methods of reaching out to families to fit the needs of the community. While Mr. Garza was probably speaking more about race and ethnicity, I took this to apply to technology as well. If over 90% of our families have internet access and use it regularly, why are we still relying on outdated methods of communication (paper, occasional phone calls).
School and family relationships: Bridging the gaphttp://0-search.proquest.com.lib.rivier.edu/docview/304910108/fulltextPDF/embedded/8J2CRBGQHL9HCK9G?source=fedsrch
Ms. Becker-Klein, in this interesting study, found that school level variables were predictive over and above family level variables when predicting parental involvement in their children's education. This may mean that instituting communication systems such as CMS could be valuable to all families, regardless of previous levels of involvement, socioeconomic status, etceteras.
Family and School Level Barriers to Family Involvement.http://0-ehis.ebscohost.com.lib.rivier.edu/ehost/detail?vid=5&sid=43e5fee2-b521-4f8e-9b98-77127cd4b28f%40sessionmgr10&hid=5&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=eric&AN=ED436291
The last study, by Farrel and Collier, looked at the preparation of teachers to engage in family-school communication, as well as its importance. The authors found that teachers were not prepared for engaging in effective parent communication. This made me think about the struggle in my own school to get teachers to communicate regularly, or update their edline accounts. If you are not taught the importance of this aspect of the job, or how to do it effectively, I think communication falls down the ladder of priorities and becomes something "extra" teachers do if they have time. Since teachers have very little extra time, those accounts become neglected and communication fails to happen regularly.
School Personnel's Perceptions of Family-School Communication: A Qualitative Studyhttp://0-ehis.ebscohost.com.lib.rivier.edu/ehost/detail?vid=5&sid=43e5fee2-b521-4f8e-9b98-77127cd4b28f%40sessionmgr10&hid=5&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=eric&AN=EJ880939
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Mod 1 Bog Entry:
In every school system that I have worked in, a common goal for teachers and administrators has been the improvement of communication with parents. In some districts technology has been utilized to better effect than others, but all systems I have experienced firsthand have identified this goal as important to the district and directly affecting the education of the children in our care. Mrs. Eggeman, in her doctoral dissertation on the perceived effectiveness of teacher web pages for enhancing communication, found that the use of technology actually may frustrate both teachers and parents. I found this very interesting, as this is the situation I currently find myself in. Teachers in my district are technically required to update their online class information every week, but this often does not happen, or the information provided is not enough for the parents who check for it. Eggeman found that teachers were frustrated with the lack of guidelines around using the technology, and parents were frustrated by the lack of updates or maintenance of the pages.
It seems clear that access to technology such as blogging or webpages alone is not enough to foster communication between parents and schools. Patrick Larkin writes in his article in Principal Leadership about blogging, that communication is the most important job of the leader in any profession. He, along with other administrators and educators, recognize how important of a tool blogging or web design could be to open lines of communication with families. A teacher who spends the time to post the positive accomplishments of his or her students, homework assignments, or upcoming assessment schedules, is communicating with all of her children's families, all at one time. This type of communication is rapidly becoming more expected in our schools, and if teachers receive the time and support they need to utilize these tools, the benefits could be enormous.
The last article I read was a study of blogging by Nardi, Schiano, Gumbrecht, and Swartz, who looked at several aspects of the phenomenon of blogging. Most interesting to me was the assessment of people's motivations. The authors identified five major motivations for bloggers: documenting one's life, providing opinions, expressing emotion, articulating ideas, and maintaining a community. I can relate some of these motivations back to the field of education, as teachers foster a sense of community, articulate ideas, and document the "lives" of their classrooms. I think that motivated teachers, given opportunity and support, and armed with the tools of online blogs or webpages, can extend their learning communities outside the walls of the school, and incorporate parents and families as participants.
Links to articles:
http://0-ehis.ebscohost.com.lib.rivier.edu/ehost/detail?vid=8&sid=f1433dfa-eb3d-4236-a5f8-eb63c2cda74e%40sessionmgr4&hid=8&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=fb5fc4c2&AN=1346632724
http://0-ehis.ebscohost.com.lib.rivier.edu/ehost/detail?vid=8&sid=f1433dfa-eb3d-4236-a5f8-eb63c2cda74e%40sessionmgr4&hid=8&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=fb5fc4c2&AN=250193258
http://0-ehis.ebscohost.com.lib.rivier.edu/ehost/detail?vid=9&sid=f1433dfa-eb3d-4236-a5f8-eb63c2cda74e%40sessionmgr4&hid=8&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=f8638049&AN=237053823
In every school system that I have worked in, a common goal for teachers and administrators has been the improvement of communication with parents. In some districts technology has been utilized to better effect than others, but all systems I have experienced firsthand have identified this goal as important to the district and directly affecting the education of the children in our care. Mrs. Eggeman, in her doctoral dissertation on the perceived effectiveness of teacher web pages for enhancing communication, found that the use of technology actually may frustrate both teachers and parents. I found this very interesting, as this is the situation I currently find myself in. Teachers in my district are technically required to update their online class information every week, but this often does not happen, or the information provided is not enough for the parents who check for it. Eggeman found that teachers were frustrated with the lack of guidelines around using the technology, and parents were frustrated by the lack of updates or maintenance of the pages.
It seems clear that access to technology such as blogging or webpages alone is not enough to foster communication between parents and schools. Patrick Larkin writes in his article in Principal Leadership about blogging, that communication is the most important job of the leader in any profession. He, along with other administrators and educators, recognize how important of a tool blogging or web design could be to open lines of communication with families. A teacher who spends the time to post the positive accomplishments of his or her students, homework assignments, or upcoming assessment schedules, is communicating with all of her children's families, all at one time. This type of communication is rapidly becoming more expected in our schools, and if teachers receive the time and support they need to utilize these tools, the benefits could be enormous.
The last article I read was a study of blogging by Nardi, Schiano, Gumbrecht, and Swartz, who looked at several aspects of the phenomenon of blogging. Most interesting to me was the assessment of people's motivations. The authors identified five major motivations for bloggers: documenting one's life, providing opinions, expressing emotion, articulating ideas, and maintaining a community. I can relate some of these motivations back to the field of education, as teachers foster a sense of community, articulate ideas, and document the "lives" of their classrooms. I think that motivated teachers, given opportunity and support, and armed with the tools of online blogs or webpages, can extend their learning communities outside the walls of the school, and incorporate parents and families as participants.
Links to articles:
http://0-ehis.ebscohost.com.lib.rivier.edu/ehost/detail?vid=8&sid=f1433dfa-eb3d-4236-a5f8-eb63c2cda74e%40sessionmgr4&hid=8&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=fb5fc4c2&AN=1346632724
http://0-ehis.ebscohost.com.lib.rivier.edu/ehost/detail?vid=8&sid=f1433dfa-eb3d-4236-a5f8-eb63c2cda74e%40sessionmgr4&hid=8&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=fb5fc4c2&AN=250193258
http://0-ehis.ebscohost.com.lib.rivier.edu/ehost/detail?vid=9&sid=f1433dfa-eb3d-4236-a5f8-eb63c2cda74e%40sessionmgr4&hid=8&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=f8638049&AN=237053823
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