Monday 29 October 2007

Parent-teacher social networking

If parents and teachers are connected on social networking websites, they can be in touch all the time about their child's behaviour and progress. This can eliminate the need for yearly parent teacher conferences, instead spreading those interactions out over time. It can also serve as a way for parents to deliver sick notes to teachers, as long as they keep their accounts secure from the students in question.

The caveat here is that I am neither a teacher nor a parent (or even a social networker of any regard), so I don't know how well it would work on either side. It just seems to me that reducing the communication burden between parents and teachers would probably be a good thing. A similar arrangement would be suitable for the parents of children's friends.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - This is where the neighbourhood went.
PPS - Online.

2 comments:

Erin Marie said...

I think the idea has some significant merit, to be honest.

But it comes down to the comfortability (possibly not a real word) communicating online.

But as the world becomes more and more an online world, I think that this could really work.

John said...

It's true that you'd have to be comfortable with communicating online, but this coming generation of parents and teachers have been online since their teens, so this won't be a big leap for them. And social networking online is not a long-term substitute for face-to-face meetings, so there may still be parent teacher interview nights.

I'm glad you like the idea.