A story told through the lens of CODE's recommendations for parent involvement.

1. Parent Involvement in Student Learning:
Outdoor Ed. and Technology
A story told through the lens of the
Council of Ontario Directors of Education

2. Student Achievement
Student success is paramount in any educational venture.
When one considers learning both inside and outside the
classroom, countless studies show the benefits of parental involvement.
Parent and community involvement is a significant asset to
achieving student success.
Let’s take a closer look at the CODE’s recommendations....

3. This is Raven, gathering around a campfire with her grade 3
class. Raven is a teacher at an alternative outdoor public school is
Forestville, Ontario. Raven loves the outdoors, but even more
than that she loves sharing her love of nature and the wilderness
with her students. Although Raven understands the importance
of having her students “unplug” from the screens and connect
with the real world, she also knows that technology can be a real
asset to their learning.
Raven wonders, “How can I use technology in an authentic way
with my students in their outdoor experiences? Who can help me
with this?”

4. Lucky for Raven, she is familiar with the Council for Outdoor Directors of Ontario,
who for years has touted the benefits of engaging parents in children’s education.
She begins her journey by reaching out to some of her colleagues to make a plan.
They have decided that their focus for the year will be Digital Storytelling in their
Outdoor Education programming, and plan to work around CODE’s sample
implementation plan:

5. Implementing the plan...
Raven’s next step was to develop a survey to distribute to the parent community.
Some important questions included:
➢ Do you have a love of story writing?
➢ Do you have experience in drafting storyboards, video recording, or
photography?
➢ Would time commitment are you willing to offer to your child’s class?
After gathering her survey responses, there were some other important things for
Raven to keep in mind...

6. Enticing Volunteers
Raven wondered what would be the best way to get parents to buy-in to her digital
storytelling project this coming school year? Would they really want to come to help?
Wisely, she considered come of CODE’s recommendations:
❖ Make the ‘ask’ small, and make it personal
❖ Ask for help early in the school year
❖ Recognize volunteer efforts often: Think personal notes, or public thanks
❖ Welcome parents throughout the year
❖ Link volunteer tasks to the students’ work
❖ Develop new networks to draw on varied skills from diverse family backgrounds
❖ Limit how often a specific parent is asked to volunteer.

7. Communication
Once Raven had established willing participants to her Digital
Storytelling program, she had to remember to keep the lines of
communication open.
The HOW: The Hows of the HOW:
➢ In person
➢ Email
➢ School Newsletter
➢ Student agendas
➢ School website
➢ Schedule a convenient time to communicate
➢ Be approachable and and eager
➢ Communicate in a non-judgemental manner
➢ Respect the different opinions
➢ Keep parents informed

8. Parents Keeping the Program moving
Running a program like digital storytelling will require some additional technical
equipment. Seeking parent feedback and know-how, Raven helped to organize parent
meetings to get this idea off the ground. New equipment would cost money, but she
had the right people for the job.
↪ Many parents are comfortable organizing fundraising events and they should
continue to use their skills to help raise funds. These funds could help to support
student learning.
↪ Networking with community partners for donations of goods and services could
also support parent engagement activities.

9. The result?
Through Raven’s hard work in coordinating and bringing parents and community
members together, her digital storytelling program was all the more effective.
Students now had the chance to create personal stories that furthered their
engagement in the outside world, coupled with images, music, and video, allowing
them to share what’s meaningful in their eyes.
This experience would add a different dimension to the traditional
outdoor education narrative, giving students the chance to learn
about one another, building stronger relationships and
understanding within their school community.

10. A Happy Ending
Together with parents and the community, Raven and her colleagues at her school
helped to build a strong vibrant and active school program that utilizes technology in
the outdoor experiential classroom, thereby engaging parents, and most importantly,
helping students succeed.

11. References:
Planning Parent Engagement:
www.ontariodirectors.ca/Parent_Engagement/PA%20Downloads/34919_CODE_
Guidebook-ENG_sm.pdf
Digital Storytelling:
https://www.epl.ca/digital-storytelling/