How can you use EdTech to build better family and community engagement?

Additionally, families can share resources and support each other with the challenges being faced by sharing knowledge and experience.

I’ve seen Class Dojo used effectively in primary education to this end. It allows teachers to share snapshots of learning and for parents to directly contact and interact with staff. Anything to build more regular contact is helpful. That said, it should add to, not replace, regular meetings with parents, and other forums for direct contact.

Google Classrooms is one of my favourite ways to engage parents in their child's learning journey. Social media can be great fun, but I reserve it for public praise so that parents can share it with family and friends. For regular updates about a child's progress, it should obviously never be public. Nothing replaces a two-minute chat at pick-up time, but being able to see what your child is working on, in a free app that can be added to any smartphone, is a great way of informing those conversations. That way it's not a surprise when you have to let someone know that their child is falling behind - nobody wants to be blindsided with feedback. It also allows parents to see ALL their child's work, not just the bits you remembered to share!

I would also add that using online platforms allows teachers to model digital citizenship and inclusion. Specifically, online platforms make modern classrooms and instructional practices accessible and digestible to grandparents who are raising students. Online platforms are a great way to bridge the generational gap for families in this circumstance.

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As an educator, I use educational technology to strengthen family and community engagement. I employ online platforms to provide families with access to the curriculum, assignments, and assessments. Additionally, I create and upload videos of mathematical theorems to the platform, implementing the flipped classroom strategy. These videos not only assist students but also enable parents to actively participate in the educational process by reviewing the material at home. I integrate online resources such as tutorials and podcasts to reinforce concepts. This combination empowers families, involving them and enhancing the connection between the school and parents in the academic and personal development of students.

Parents are the experts in their own children; sure, they're blinded by love, but it would be crazy not to utilise the valuable resources that they are. Collaborating with them on how their child works best will always help you get the best out of a student! Every time I have a conversation with a parent, I like to follow up with an email, to confirm what was said, but also to remind them that I'm on their child's side, and I'd love to hear about anything that helps them when they're struggling at home. There's so many digital tools out there, but nothing beats a simple, old fashioned email for clear, detailed communication about support and accommodations in my book.

Online learning is a great way to support parent education for those who work long hours or can't attend school. Working in primary school computing, I need to teach e-citizenship and safety, not just to the students but to their parents, too. Engaging them in those conversations can sometimes be challenging, especially if the children attend wrap-around care before and after school. Not only does online learning allow them to listen at their own convenience, but it allows you to teach it once, and make updates - instead of having to repeat yourself over an over at every parent partnership evening. Digital safety is too important to be ignored because you couldn't fit it into everyone's calendars!

I offer parent training to our school community around our digital citizenship philosophy (DCP) and the role of the parent. We ask that our community supports our DCP because from grades 2-12 the technology is parent owned. The presentation is centered around building a positive culture of technology usage in the home built around our three main concepts, Respect, Protect and , Connect. We offer a one pager in the main languages of our community to make the DCP more accessible. This helps us build a positive connection with our families around these important concepts.

Digital storytelling is a very effective tool to convey messages without really preaching !!! Children respond well to animations and voice modulations.The plot of the story must be goal oriented. My students have always responded well to simple short stories .And of course ... learning happening all along !

Whilst gamification improves learning engagement for everybody, it's particularly beneficial for neurodivergent students and parents who have interest-driven neurochemistry. I've seen firsthand how students who have lost their love of learning can be turned around with the incentive of clear targets and the ability to 'level up' or gain points. I think we often forget that our children aren't the only ones who may need support or accommodations from our schools; our parents and guardians do too. Recognising that the parent who is a 'hot mess' might be struggling with executive dysfunction when they don't read the emails we send, we need to look at other ways to equitably engage them - and personally, I think gamification is perfect.

Remember, when choosing platforms to engage on, we want to be as inclusive as possible and ensure no hidden costs to the community. That means using free services that we can trust for longevity. If you're asking parents and students to learn a piece of software that is only available to schools who invest and pay for it, it's possible that it will be irrelevant to them once they leave your school. I'm a big advocate for using google services, and no, they haven't paid me to say that! It's free, available on all platforms and devices, it's not likely to fold any time soon, and it means that our learners are on a platform that they can use elsewhere too. Plus, it's user-friendly and doesn't require remembering ANOTHER password!