I ran my first parent workshop in March 2011. It’s a stand out moment as we were sharing information about a potential 1:1 laptop program and as a true 'Type A' personality, I still have the slide deck.
Since then, I have run dozens of parent workshops and consider them to be an essential part of any EdTech Leader’s role. As my department has increased, we have begun to explore the value of hosting parent sessions for a specific division. Our Primary School Digital Coach partnered with our lower and upper Primary School Counsellors to host well attended and well reviewed parent sessions last year and is keen to continue and expand this year. The goal of any parent technology and learning session is the same:
In short, we want parents to feel empowered to make informed choices about their child's use of digital technologies, to know that it's ok to take the laptop away when their 11 year old has been doing homework (and Netflix and Instagram and SnapChat) for 3 hours. It's therefore important for us to share a little of what our expectations and procedures are with regards to digital devices at school. I recently hosted a session for Grade 6 parents. With their children new to our school’s laptop program, we are keen to hear their concerns and give support and guidance on how to manage their child’s screentime. Prior to the session, we sent parents a form, inviting them to add any questions they had. This served two purposes; firstly, it meant we could tailor the session to address the most pressing concerns (as opposed to guessing or worse, just telling families what we thought they might want to hear) and secondly, it meant we had insight into the feelings and concerns of the whole community. Every session is a partnership, most often between the Head of Personal Counselling and I. For this recent session, our Head of Grade 6 came and was able to address questions that related specifically to expectations for students in their first year of Middle School and our Head of Middle School and our Middle School Counsellors were also in attendance. In taking this approach, our aim is to send a nonverbal message that talking about technology is not just a conversation to have with the EdTech team, it is a conversation you can have with anyone at the school.
As a side note, I tend to play a mental game of ‘chicken’ with parent sessions- it is possible to have more faculty present than parents- that wasn’t the case on this occasion and needless to say, we expect a high turn-out for any session related to Social Media.
This was a purely informational session and while some parents likened it to ‘drinking from the firehose’ we enjoyed positive feedback and are looking forward to mapping the parent sessions for the coming year.
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I think I arrived a little late to the Podcast game- I’ve only been listening for a couple of years. A friend of mine got me in through ‘Serial’- she went week by week with it- but I do podcasts in the way I do Netflix ![]() I’ll admit to being a little narrow in my Podcast world-view, I tried listening to the ‘Chris Moyles Radio 1 Breakfast Show Podcast’ back in the day but could not get into it. Also, there was so much about ‘Welcome to Nightvale’ on my Pinterest feed that I gave it a go. Couldn’t get it -and I’m pretty whimsical and roll with non mainstream stuff. I’ve only just started listening to ‘This American Life’ and tend to stick with TED Radio Hour. All that being so, here are my favorites: Serial: Hasn't everyone in the world listened to Serial? The story of Adnan Syed was my go-to listening when I visited my parents in the summer of 2015. Sitting on the bus, walking down school road, I began to actively resent the friends and family I was supposed to meet up with when I reached my destination and I was even known to take an extra lap around the block just to reach the end of an episode. Serial: The story of Bo Bergdahl filled my ears the summer of 2016. I know it has been criticized for not being as compelling as the Syed case but the many layers that comprise the Bergdahl case never made it to the American media, in addition to an education in American Military procedure, made it compelling listening for me. I am most impressed by Sarah Koenig’s narration and the incredible research done by the ‘This American Life’ team in both cases. You can learn more about Serial here If Serial qualifies as entertainment, then the TED Radio Hour qualifies as educational. It is, of course, the only thing that keeps me on the treadmill at the gym or convinces me that I can (and should) clean the apartment or keeps me company on long road trips- the downside of each of these occupations is, of course, that I can’t take notes while listening. Of the many episodes available, I do have a couple of favorites: Screen Time Part 1: I recommend this at all the parent workshops I host. Compiled from excerpts of talks as well as interviews with the presenters, Screen Time talks about the impact- negative and potentially positive- that mobile devices and screens have on our lives. Crisis and Response: I like this one. I even remember dusting my bedside tables while listening to it. It doesn’t connect to work or anything really, it just speaks to me about the power of human beings to step up and help each other when the world seems to be going wrong. Inspiring and empowering- feel good listening. This American Life: Status Update: I love the start of this podcast- the first few minutes is a recording of a small group of teenage girls as they check the ‘likes’ they receive in Instagram and speak honestly about the influence social media has on their self image. It offers great insight and again, it’s one I encourage all our parents to listen to.
Next step is to try Podcast production with students. I’ve tried it before with a class but we were never able to go public with it (‘The Importance of the Kardashian’s’ was one creation… I renamed the unit ‘When giving voice and choice goes wrong!’) One of our Elementary teachers is interested in exploring it with her class. First step is encouraging students to listen to appropriate podcasts, before introducing them to the tools we will use for production. Hopefully, in a couple of months, I’ll have something new to listen to at the gym. |
About the AuthorPassionate about learning, creativity, innovation and tech. Brit Abroad keen to work with others to make the world a little kinder. Archives
April 2019
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