Technology To Support Communication

Introduction:  
   Teachers are implementing technology into their classrooms to better enhance communication among students, parents and staff. For teachers to have a successful classroom they are keeping up with different communication tools that will help maintain students motivated and involved in classroom lectures and discussions throughout the year as they will strengthen literacy skills(Witte,2007). That is why the blog created is a tool that will enhance the way students can become more involved in school lectures and can express themselves with others. Parents, students and staff have access to communicate and provide feedback about any informal articles or information that is available in the blog at any time of the day.

Technology to Enhance Communication
Email: is a tool that is used for daily communication to one another regardless of the time being, you are able to communicate at any time or day and can always have access to what was sent or received for future references. An email can be sent to any individual that has email or can also be sent as a group for any special memos that you want to get across. Email was only once used in the past decade by young generations and now in days it is being used by anyone regardless of how old they are. "Email is the most popular means of communication now-a-days" (Joshi and et. Al., 2005).

·         Parents: Have a busy schedule and this tool helps them stay connected with teachers and their child at any time of the day.

·         Students: Can use this tool to stay better communicated with teachers throughout the day because of their schedules.

·         Global Community: It's a great tool to stay communicated as a group and can even send and receive important memos as a group as well. It's also a great tool to use to save time and avoid overwhelming.

Podcast: Is a tool that allows everyone to stay connected by sharing information, provide instructions and entertainment thought spoken words versus written words. Podcast allows parents, students and global community to stay up to date with any new  information and allows anyone to speak their mind. "Besides tunes, podcast can future class-produced talk shows or audio files of books, articles, poems, and even vocabulary lists created by students."(Pool, Carolyn, 2005).

·         Parents: Have access to become more involved in their child's school studies, as they can become aware of what they are learning in class or how they are doing in class.

·         Students: Can gain classroom lectures and share different kinds of information with anyone at any time.

·         Global Community: Can be involve with any students presentation, debates or any interviews and post comments or share feedback.

Reminder 101: Is a tool that everyone uses throughout the day because it's easy access and a fast way to communicate with anyone that decides to stay up to date of any important information. It's also very convenient and fast way to stay connected with teachers, students and staff. "This type of service can build the bridge between teacher to student communication and allows them to stay connected no matter which devices they are using" (Bobbitt, Rachel, Ruth Inman, and Elizabeth Bertrand,2013)

·         Parents: Have very busy schedules and have less time to talk on the phone, that is why texting is a much more suitable way to stay communicated with teachers and others at any time of the day.

·         Students: Use texting to stay communicated with teachers and others because its easy access to them while in school or other curricular activities.

·         Global Community: Can stay connected with one another by sending and receiving messages or important memos as a group.

Wiki: Is a web site tool that can be created or modified by anyone. It is used among many as a source of information, knowledge and a tool for collaborative authority. It allows students to showcase their work and projects. Classroom discussions don't always have to end at school because they can continue at home to extend intellectual thinking and develop many more ideas(Betty, Mia.) "Wiki allows visitors to engage in dialog and share information among participants in group projects, or to engage in learning with each other by using wikis as a collaborative environment in which to construct their knowledge"(Boulos et al., 2006).

·         Parents: Can become more involved in their children's school by having access to what they are learning about in class and be a part of any projects, lectures and even post comments.

·         Students: Have access to read anyone's questions and post or reply any comments. Can also display projects, share presentation or class lectures and have access to any school lectures.  

·         Global Community: Have the ability to access wikis to be involved in any lecture, presentation or project and can reply or post any comments.

Communication Internet Security and Safety:

It is important for teachers to address internet security and safety in their classroom. For teachers to successfully accomplish teaching students, parents and the global community of how to avoid to become a victim of any child predator or criminal is by having information available to them and send emails with links that will help them learn more about staying safe while navigating the web. Parent need to know the importance it is for them to get involved in children's safe and pedagogical use of the internet in and out the family home (Vitalak, Elena, Panagiotes S. Anastasiadesm George Tsouvelas, and George Tsouvelas,2012). Teachers can also incorporating lectures into their curriculums about how to stay safe and what to avoid while navigating the internet before letting students use technology tools in school. There are facts that state that  teens are become the target of child predators and criminals because they use the internet a lot and are more familiar with different tools, but because they are posting personal information on the web, 56 percent of them have become victims (McAfee, 2010).   

Concluding Paragraph

As teachers are integrating different technology tools to better help them enhance communication with students, parents and staff. As there are many tools, such as emails, text, wikis, face book, instagram, podcast and many more that are available for anyone to access at any time of the day because of the different schedules everyone has not everyone can meet with each other. These tools provide us with varies information, lectures, presentations, comments and we can even provide any feedback to one another. For teachers to have a successful communication with parents, students and staff it is significant for them to know how important it is to stay safe by becoming well-informed of how to navigate the web in a secure way and avoid becoming a victim of any child predator or criminal.

References

Beatty, Mia. "Integrating Google Blogs into K-6 Language Arts Classroom To Promote Interactive Learning Communities." February 15, 2015. Retrieved from http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/27119/Beatty.pdf

"Blogs, Podcast, and Wikis in Business Communication." ." Education portal, 2003-2015. February 15, 2015. Retrieved from http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/blogs-podcasts-and-wikis-in-business-communication.html

Bobbitt, Rachel, Ruth Inman, and Elizabeth Bertrand. "Using Remind 101 as a Classroom: Communication Tool," NACTA Journal, vol. 57.4 (2013): 77-78. Education Research Complete. Web. 15 Feb 2015.

Boulos, M.N.K., Maramba, I., & Wheeler, S. (2006). Wikis, blogs and podcasts: A new generation of Webbased tools for virtual collaborative clinical practice and education, BMC Medical Education, 6(41). Retrieved November 2006 from http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1472-6920-6-41.pdf

Coombs, Dawan, Jamie Leite, and Sirpa Grierson. "Opening Pandora's Box: Social Networks In The Classroom Of 2010." Kentucky English Bulletin 59.2 (2010): 14-18. Education Research Complete. Web. 15 Feb. 2015.

 DeFranco, Joanna F. "Teaching Internet Security, Safety in our Classrooms." Techniques: Connecting Education & Careers 86.5(2011): 52-55 OmniFile Full Text Select (H.W. Wilson). Web. 16 Feb. 2015.

Gunter, Glenda A., Gunter, Randolph E. Teacher Discovering Computers: Boston: Cengage Learning, 2015. Printed

Joshi , V., Saxena, A., (2005). Analyzing E-mail Communication of Prospective Learners. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education–TOJDE, 6(4).

McAfee. "The Secret Online Lives of Teens."

Parker, Kevin R., and Joseph T. Chao. "Wiki As A Teaching Tool". Interdisciplinary Journal of Knowledge & Learning Objects 3. (2007): 57-72. Education Research Complete. Web. 15 Feb. 2015.

Pool, Carolyn, "Learning In The Digital Age," Educational Leadership 63.4 (2005): 96.-88. Academic Search Complete. Web Feb.15 2015.

Raham, K.M. Rezanur, Sadat Anwar and Sharker Md. Numan. "Enhancing Distant Learning Through Email Communication: A Case Of BOU." Online Submission (2008):ERIC.Web.15.2015

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Vitalaki, Elena, Panagiotes S. Anastasiadesm George Tsouvelas, and George Tsouvelas. "Factors Influencing Parental Control For The Safe And Pedagogical Internet Use Among Primary School Century 42. (2012): 125-135. Education Research Complete. Web. 16 Feb. 2015.