After watching Sherry Turkle's video about technology and communication, it made me think about communication in a different way. I have gotten so used to texting and emailing that I haven't thought about how it has changed my ways of communicating. My first year teaching (10 years ago) a lot of parents had email, but did not check it all of the time. The best way to contact parents was by calling home. Well, now that has changed drastically. Just like all of us, parents of our students check their email on their phones and tablets all of the time. Personally, I think this is a great thing for teachers. One reason is because we can thoughtfully put an email together and make sure it makes sense and says everything we want it to say. Also, if we can a harsh email from a parent we can take out time to put write an appropriate response, instead of making a smart comment right back to them. Also, with email, we have documentation of what we have said to the parent in case they try to say they didn't know something.
As far as how this has impacted communication with my classroom, I would have to say nothing but positive things. I receive more student emails each year. Students will email me when they are absent to get their work or ask questions. Another one of my favorite new ways of communication is Remind 101. This is free service where you can create a class and have all of your students register by texting a code to a specific number. No one receives an actual phone number of anyone. But once my kids register for my class, I can send reminder messages to them and they receive them as a text message on their phone. It is a great way to remind students of tests, assignments, or even to bring their textbook to class! It is very convenient.
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