Connecting in the 21st Century Webinar

Connecting in the 21st Century: Parents and Administrators Speak Up about Effective School to Home Communications Key Findings of a special new report from Blackboard Connect and Project Tomorrow Julie Evans, Project Tomorrow CEO

Welcome Patrick Rodwell Manager, Territory Marketing Blackboard Inc. [email_address] Jennie Breister Product Marketing Manager Blackboard Connect for K-12 jennie.breister@blackboard.com

Featured Speaker: Julie Evans Chief Executive Officer Project Tomorrow

www.tomorrow.org
Project Tomorrow (formerly NetDay) is one of the nation’s leading education nonprofit organizations, dedicated to empowering K-12 students, teachers and parents to have a larger voice in improving education and learning.
CEO since 1999, former 17-year career in sales and marketing with Unisys and other education tech startups.
Graduate of Brown University, named as a Frances Hesselbein Community Innovation Fellow in 2003.
Speaker, writer and commentator on children, education, science and technology issues.
In 2008, named one of the Top Ten Most Influential People in Education Technology over the past 10 years by eSchool News.

Today’s Agenda:
Introducing the new report
About the Speak Up Project
Review of research methodology and findings
Conversation time
Speak Up Research Project: Views of Students, Parents, Teachers, Librarians and Administrators

A big thank you to:

Series of Speak Up Reports in collaboration with Blackboard

Annual national research project
Online surveys + focus groups
Open for all K-12 schools and schools of education
Institutions receive free report with their own data
Collect ideas ↔ Stimulate conversations
K-12 Students, Teachers, Parents, Administrators
Pre-Service Teachers in Schools of Education
Inform policies & programs
Analysis and reporting of findings and trends
Consulting services to help transform teaching and learning
Speak Up National Research Project + 2.6 million surveys since 2003

Learning & Teaching with Technology
21 st Century Skills: Digital Citizenship
Home to school communications
Career Interests in STEM and Teaching
Professional Development / Teacher Preparation
Internet Safety
Administrators’ Challenges
Emerging Technologies in the Classroom
Mobile Devices, Online Learning, Digital Content, E-textbooks
Educational Games, Web 2.0 tools and applications
Designing the 21st Century School
Speak Up survey question themes

What can the Speak Up findings tell us about the future of learning?

Speak Up National Research Project Key Findings: Speak Up 2003 – 2011
Students function as a “ Digital Advance Team ”
Students regularly adopt and adapt emerging technologies for learning
Students’ frustrations focus on the unsophisticated use of technologies within education
Persistent digital disconnect between students and adults
Exacerbation of lack of relevancy in current education

A new uniquely “student vision” for leveraging emerging technologies to drive achievement and educational productivity Emerging from the Speak Up research:

A new uniquely “student vision” for leveraging emerging technologies to drive achievement and educational productivity Emerging from the Speak Up research: This student vision for “technology enabled learning” mirrors how students want to learn in general

The Student Vision for Learning
Social–based learning
Un–tethered learning
Digitally–rich learning

The Student Vision for Learning:
Leveraging technology to improve school to home communications to drive student achievement

Introducing . . . Connecting in the 21st Century: Parents and Administrators Speak Up about Effective School to Home Communications

Connecting in the 21st Century: Research Questions
Why do administrators value effective communications with parents?
How are schools and districts tapping into technology to connect with parents?
Do parents today have different expectations for school communications?
How are teachers leveraging technology to provide feedback to students?
What is the relationship between school communications and parental attitudes about their child’s school?

K-12 Students 294,399
Teachers 35,525
Librarians 2,135
Parents (in English & Spanish) 42,267
School/District Administrators 3,578
Technology Leaders 1,391
Schools / Districts 6,541 / 1,340
Top 12 participating states:
TX, CA, AL, AZ, FL, NC, IL, MD, IN, NV, PA, WI
About Speak Up participating schools:
51% Title 1 eligible – indicating community poverty
34% urban, 29% suburban, 37% rural
National Speak Up 2010 Participation: 379,355

“ By improving communications, our schools are able to establish relationships with parents that reinforce the school’s dedication to student success .” District Administrator from North Carolina

School portal: 58% growth since 2007

“ In today’s environment, parents, teachers, the community and all stakeholders of public schools expect instantaneous communication regarding events going on at their local schools. It’s considered a basic service, not an extra .” District Administrator from Michigan

“ I am very happy with our school and the communications amongst the teacher, parents and students. If I were principal, I would tell parents to use the technology that is offered because it is the child who suffers and it is not just up to the teacher to educate our children.” Parent from California

38% say they are using technology to provide feedback on student performance
Slightly over one-third of teachers report using email, IM and text messaging to communicate with students

But, 64% of teachers say that mobile devices could improve student-parent-teacher communications

But, 64% of teachers say that mobile devices could improve student-parent-teacher communications And 52% of students say they would use their smartphone to communicate with their teacher . . . if usage was allowed at school

Parents who rate school communications as ineffective Also have greater dissatisfaction overall with their child’s school
Don’t feel a connection to the school
Have concerns about the quality of their child’s teacher
Say teacher is not working with parents to ensure student success

Ending Thoughts
Increased parental demand for more effective and meaningful communications + Variety of emerging technology solutions for school to home connections _______________________________________ = New opportunities for schools and districts to leverage communications tools to improve student achievement

Connecting in the 21st Century: Research Questions

The Student Vision for Learning:
Leveraging technology to improve school to home communications to drive student achievement

Access the full report:
www.tomorrow.org/speakup/Connecting21st_2012.html

National Speak Up Findings and reports
Speak Up 2011 data: release to participating districts on Feb 1
Speak Up 2011 data: national release in April
Presentations, podcasts and webinars
Evaluation services & reports
Speak Up 2012!
More Speak Up? www.tomorrow.org

A big thank you to:

Thank you. Let’s continue this conversation. Julie Evans Project Tomorrow [email_address] 949-609-4660 x15 Twitter: JulieEvans_PT Copyright Project Tomorrow 2011. This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

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Connecting in the 21st Century Webinar

by Julie Evans

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