Gone are the days of scrunched-up school newsletters left derelict and forgotten at the bottom of school backpacks, along with the left over ham and tomato sandwich, the squished-up banana and a half-eaten snack pack of sultanas.
Schools are going digital.
More and more teachers are turning to twitter, blogging and Facebook as a way of keeping in touch with parents about their child's learning. According to QUT education expert, Associate Professor Margaret Lloyd, it is a trend which is meeting the needs of time-poor parents.
Professor Lloyd said contemporary teaching involved teachers' blogging with students to capture their learning, and tweeting and emailing parents with information about the school day.
"Parents are now able to find out what their children are doing, almost at the same time as they are doing it."
Professor Lloyd said in many families today both parents worked, meaning parents were not able to be as involved in their child's schooling as they perhaps would like.
"This trend of using digital technology as a means of connecting with parents, essentially bringing parents into the classroom, is really taking off," Professor Lloyd said.
"It also fits with the trend that the walls of the classroom are disappearing."
Professor Lloyd said the notion of classes fitting inside four walls was a thing of the past, with digital technology rapidly being used as a communication tool between teachers and parents, teachers and students, students and students and teachers and teachers.
"For example it is common for students in one classroom to work with students in another classroom halfway across the world using digital technology," she said.
"There is also a change in the relationship between teachers and students with teachers nowadays able to see the students' work as they are working and comment and provide feedback progressively.”
She said the classroom of today is unrecognisable to the classroom that most parents experienced, and it’s also changing the way teaching is done.
__small.png)
