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Utilizing Technology to Connect with Parents: A Study of Possible

Positive Implications on Student Literacy

Cynthia Wolfe

Franciscan University of Steubenville

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Utilizing Technology to Connect with Parents: A Study of Possible

Positive Implications on Student Literacy

Today is the age of technology. We can communicate with people miles away through a

single tap of a button on an easily transportable hand-held device. For teachers, this

technological advancement has enabled them to communicate with students and families with

greater speed and efficiency than ever before. Parents and Guardians can be notified immediately

about the educational activities and progress of their child, which helps to foster a continuum

between the school and home environments (Patrikakou, 2016). As a future educator, I am

interested in the utilization of technology to communicate with parents and students in order to

facilitate collaboration between school and home. More specifically, as a future English language

arts teacher, I wish to know how communicating with parents via technology can benefit student

literacy, the ability to read correctly (Reutzel & Cooter, 2012). Many studies show the positive

correlation between parental involvement in their student’s education especially their literacy

skills (Agirdag, Hemmerechts, Kavadias, 2017). These literacy skills include oral language,

phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing. Reutzel and Cooter define four of

these skills as the following: oral language is the ability to communicate vocally; phonics is the

method of teaching and connecting spoken sounds and the associated symbols; fluency involves

word identification, reading speed, expression, and appropriately separating sentences into

phrases; vocabulary skills is the use of words appropriate to the situation. The National Reading

Panel (2000) describes comprehension as a process whereby readers build meaning through

intentional thinking and assimilation of prior knowledge and experience. All of these skills

contribute to a student’s overall literacy. Technology provides teachers with an efficient means
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of communicating the students’ literacy needs and cooperating with the parents and guardians to

benefit these literacy needs.

Purpose

Educational researchers have asked the question, whether parental involvement in

children’s education significantly affects student learning outcomes. Studies have indicated that

parental involvement positively affects student learning, especially in learning literacy skills

(Agirdag, Hemmerechts, Kavadias, 2017). In today’s age of advancing technology, many tools

exist which can connect schools and teachers with the parents and guardians of the students. The

question then arises, what specific technological tools are utilized by educators today to

collaborate with their students’ homes and are the outcomes of this technology significant

enough to affect student learning, specifically student literacy?

I am researching the above question to discover effective educational technology to

advance communication and collaboration between both schools and parents to help students

develop and advance their literacy skills. I created and distributed a survey to educators on

Twitter asking questions about the correlation between communication technology and student

literacy. Through this research, I hoped to find which technology best benefits student literacy,

how to effectively implement this technology, and whether teachers adapt certain technology to

best benefit their students.

I propose that my research will show that technology is effective in connecting parents

and schools to enable students to develop literacy skills in both home and school settings. I also

predict that certain technology may be more helpful in developing student literacy skills, while

other technology may need to be adapted to be successful. I hope that this research benefits

educators, parents or guardians, and students by providing information on what technology is

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most beneficial for advancing student literacy skills. The data collected may be used in the future

to develop new technology synthesizing different communication, collaboration, and

instructional activity strategies which need to be combined to truly benefit student literacy skills.

Review of Literature

In recent years, academia has displayed interest in the relationship between parental

involvement in their children’s education and academic achievement. Brown, Rosenthal, and

Dynega (2018) performed a study addressing this topic and an additional element; the authors

noted the “how” and “why” parents chose certain literature to read aloud to their children

merited examination. The purpose of the study then was to learn how adults select books to read

aloud to their children in a home environment (Brown, Rosenthal, & Dynega, 2018). A goal was

also added to the purpose. This was to learn what guides participating parents’ involvements and

to help teachers find ways to support parental literacy activities at home. Participants were from

an urban elementary school and were comprised of seventy families, three first grade teachers,

and oneuniversity faculty member. The method utilized was a questionnaire consisting of 12

closed-ended questions and five open-ended questions. Findings from the study included that

parents infrequently read to students at home regardless of income level, the majority of parents

used books from their own collection, and many parents based their literacy decisions upon

personal research into the topic. This last finding surprised the researchers. The researchers did

not anticipate parents investing personal time into research into their children’s literacy needs.

As a result of the findings, Brown, Rosenthal, and Dynega concluded that in order for teachers to

further assist parents with at-home literacy activities, they should develop their understandings of

the home lives of their students.

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This research provides teachers with strategies to assist parents in helping their students

with literacy activities at home including read alouds. The teachers involved in the study

developed several different strategies to specifically target problems which were revealed by the

questionnaire. These included labeling books according to what type of authentic literature

whether textbook or trade book, that were then sent home with the students. I appreciated the

methodology utilized in this study because I intend to create and distribute a questionnaire

directed toward teachers addressing their observation of the possible benefits of communicating

with parents via technology on their students’ literacy skills. However, I believe that the

methodology could have been extended and supplemented further by assessing the results of the

strategies which the teachers implemented post the study. I also believe that the study might have

benefited from a larger group of participants. The article could also have benefited from graphics

and charts detailing the results of the complete test and not merely select questions. This article

is relevant to my own research in its use of similar methodology and exploration into parental

literacy involvement.

Socio-economic status (SES) is a factor of parental involvement and indicator of reading

literacy level. Hemmerechts, Agirdag, and Kavadias (2017) explored the relationship of parental

involvement in literacy activities, SES, and reading literacy. Their study included six hypotheses.

These were that (1) early parental involvement in literacy activities at home is positively related

to SES, (2) attitudes toward reading are positively related to SES and the early literacy

involvement of parents, (3) early parental involvement in literacy in a home environment is

positively related to reading literacy, (4) late parental involvement in literacy in a home

environment is negatively related to SES, (5) late parental involvement in literacy is associated

with the reading literacy of students (the likelihood is higher when students have poor literacy in
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reading and lower when students have good literacy), and finally, (6) the transition of low early

parental involvement to high late parental involvement is more likely for children of lower SES.

Participants included 43,870 students in 2639 classes and 1770 schools with information from

the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) from 2006. This study specifically

used data from Western European countries. The methodology then is a survey which considers

four outcome variables: early parental literacy involvement, late parental literacy involvement,

the reading literacy test from PIRLS, and the attitudes of students toward reading. The authors

indicated that the study found a positive relation between early literacy activity involvement at

home (prior to school) and reading literacy and parental education. Furthermore, students from

low SES families exemplify late involvement in literacy activity compared to students from high

SES.

The conclusions of the study indicate the necessity of encouraging parents and families of

all SES to intentionally engage more in early literacy activities in order to help students to

achieve and maintain higher literacy proficiency in the future. As a preservice language arts

teacher, I appreciated the concentration of this study as it applies to my future communication

with my students and their families. I would welcome a similar study being conducted in the

United States to have an idea of how the statistics compare to the statistics from this study of

Western European countries. The authors indicate that further study should include an

examination of the background characteristics of parents and the relationship of these to the

school setting. Background characteristics of parents might include further information on SES,

past education, cultural heritage, native language, etc.… The authors conclude by saying, “We

argue on the basis of this article that the children’s academic achievement in primary school

might also be a guide for parents in terms of how involved they become in the educational
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sphere” (p. 98). This statement speaks to all current and future teachers, especially those teaching

early grades, that they should ensure to establish and maintain communication with parents on

the academic status of their children and incorporate the parents in the learning process. I found

this article critical to my research because it develops my emphasis on communicating with

parents and collaborating to benefit student literacy regardless of SES. In order to form a more

effective line of communication, parents and teachers could utilize technology. This effort on the

part of the parents and teachers also demonstrates to the students the importance of traditional

literacy and technological literacy.

In the 21st century, it is important for children to develop not only traditional literacy

skills but also technology literacy. Ejikeme and Okpala (2016) wrote an article detailing the

importance of technology literacy and specifically, how librarians can help facilitate student

development of these skills. The question the authors asked was what number of primary and

secondary school librarians were conscious of the necessity of utilizing new technologies for

personal use and for the advantage of students. While there are no explicit participants in this

article as it is a non-empirical article, the authors clearly state the intended audience and

recipients of the information offered are school librarians. The methodology of this article

consisted of reviews of literature demonstrating and supporting the thesis of the authors which is

stated above as the purpose or guiding question. First Ejikeme and Okpala address the definition

of literacy. They write, “Literacy in the information age can be defined as the ability to acquire

and utilize knowledge, skills and other resources to facilitate learning” (1167). Four main

literacy needs are then outlined including technology needs. The final part of the article

explained the critical role which school librarians have in imparting technology literacy to

children. Ejikeme and Okpala concluded that libraries and librarians should support student
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literacy by providing devices and instructing children how to properly utilize technology to gain

new knowledge and declared that student literacy was vital for national development.

Ejikeme and Okpala’sarticle details what literacy is and how it includes technology

literacy. Although it addresses librarians, this is important for teachers and parents to understand

as well, which the authors also state at the end of the article. As a preservice educator, I

appreciate the in-depth analysis of literacy and technology literacy and hope to utilize these

definitions in furthering my research on student literacy, parental involvement, and technology.

The article could have included more statistics supporting their case for technology literacy, as

there was a lack of statistical data provided by charts or graphs. Further research could be

conducted on what types of technology most positively affect the four literacy needs outlined in

the article. Overall, the topic of technology literacy is relevant to my study and could be used to

support the implementation of technology to achieve greater parent-teacher collaboration

concerning student literacy.

Parenting in the digital age can be difficult due to the influence of technology on parent-

child interactions. Patrikakou (2016) addresses this issue in her article on parents, technology,

and media use in education and parenting. The article serves to offer an overview of the rise in

technology availability and use and its impact on children, adolescents, families, parenting, and

the school’s part in this technologically driven world (Patrikakou, 2016). Students of all ages,

parents, educators, and administration all play a part in this article. Patrikakou begins by

establishing the difference between digital natives, people born at the turn of the 21st century,

and digital immigrants, those who experience technology later in life. Parents and children

belong in both categories today. This can affect the relationship between them by inhibiting or

facilitating communication. Patrikakou responds to criticisms of technology including its overuse

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by asking whether there are productive means of utilizing technology to benefit student learning,

parenting, and parent involvement. One of the ways technology benefits education and parental

involvement is offering a continuum between school and home and widening the learning sphere.

Technology also helps schools and parents to communicate and share information on student

progress.

Patrikakou’s article provides educators and parents with a view of the benefits of

technology and its uses at home and at school. It further establishes guidelines for parental

involvement in technology use which may also be utilized by teachers in the classroom. The

article was slightly hard to follow as it covered a broad variety of topics and quickly transitioned

from student use of technology to parental use, family interaction, family school interactions, etc.

I realize that the article was meant as an overview of information, but better use of headers and a

numbering system would have helped the organizational structure of the text making it easier to

comprehend. This article’s relevance to both parents and educators will benefit my research on

how teachers utilize technology to communicate with parents and help students developing

literacy skills.

Methodology

Participants

The participants for this study consisted of educators, parents, administrators, and a few

student teachers. Participants were from various states across the United States of America with

the exception of one educator who was from South America. Participants were not specifically

selected. Rather, a survey was distributed via various social media platforms inviting educators,

parents, and administrators to complete the survey; Among these participants, 27 worked with

early elementary (pre-k to 5), 5 taught middle school (6-8), and 7 taught high school (9-2). 27
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participants specifically classified themselves as language arts educators. The details of this

survey distribution will follow in the section below.

Survey Creation

I created a survey utilizing Google Forms to distribute to educators on several social

media platforms. The survey included questions asking participants to complete the survey titled

“Utilizing Technology to Connect with Parents and Benefit Student Literacy.” The survey

consisted of 11 questions. The first four questions inquired into what role the participants had in

education, what grade and subject they taught, and where they teach. I decided to gather

information on the educator’s backgrounds in order to determine if there was a difference

between teachers in elementary and teachers in middle school and high school and how they all

utilize technology to connect with their students’ homes. The next 11 questions asked questions

including if the teacher participants communicated with parents and how they chose to

communicate. Other questions included, “Have you seen benefits from using technology to

communicate and collaborate with parents, specifically in regards to student literacy? In what

ways have you seen the effects?” “What aspects of student literacy (if any) do you believe are

benefited by collaboration with parents?” and “What qualities of technology most aid

communication with parents/guardians?” These questions were designed to collect information

on what technology teachers use to communicate and whether they observed any development in

student literacy as a result. The final question was to determine how the teachers were utilizing

the technology.

Survey Distribution

After creating the survey, I intended to only distribute the form on the social media

platform, Twitter. Many educators utilize Twitter to collaborate, exchange ideas, and receive
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feedback and advice. I have had experience utilizing Twitter for professional development and

expanding my learning network. Consequently, I determined that Twitter would be an

appropriate method of circulating my survey to educators all across the United States and even

around the world. I posted a Tweet online asking for educators to complete my Google Form and

utilized hashtags, a word or phrase preceded by a hash sign, to illustrate the relevance of my

survey and invite educators to contribute. Dr. Susan Poyo, an instructor of education at

Franciscan University of Steubenville, assisted in sharing my questionnaire with educators by

also posting the link to my survey from her professional Twitter account.

I waited a week before checking the results of my survey. As I opened my Google Forms

document, I noticed that the tab labeled “Responses” had the number five in parentheses. This

meant that only five educators had completed my survey. In response, I shared the link to my

form once more. However, I determined that I may need to utilize an additional social media

platform. I decided to utilize Facebook, to share the link with my “friends” on the website. I

described the purpose of the study and invited those educators I knew to complete the survey. I

also asked other members to share my post in order to further spread the invitation. Several

people notified other educators about my survey and shared the link on their personal accounts. I

also shared the link on the Facebook group for my hometown and invited educators in the group

to complete the Google Form. As an additional measure, I joined a teaching community on

Facebook, entitled, “Help A Teacher Community.” On this page, I shared my link. I believe that

I received the most responses due to this community. After I shared my link on Facebook and

Twitter, I waited several days and then checked the status of the number of responses. On Friday,

April 12, 2019, I closed the form with a total of 40 responses to the form.
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Findings

My research through this study led to my discovery that while the majority of teachers

utilize technology to communicate with parents, they do not specifically use technology to

collaborate with parents regarding literacy skills and have not observed any benefits to literacy

skills. This result was not entirely surprising. I thought that the idea of collaborating with parents

via technology specifically to benefit literacy was a new idea which might have never been

tested before. However, I determined to continue with the survey topic in order to gain

information that might help with further research on how to use communication technology to

benefit student literacy.

An overwhelming majority of 38 participants answered that they did communicate with

parents. The results of the survey indicated that 35 teachers communicate with parents through

technology. Of all the responses, 4 participants responded that they did not use technology, and

one did not answer. Responses to how educators incorporated parental involvement consisted

mainly in communicating with parents, homework involving parental assistance, inviting parents

to school activities, and performing parent/student reading assignments. A vast majority of 29

responses answered that the educators mainly used email and text to communicate with parents.

The following graph for question 8 illustrates the responses to the question of what technology

educators utilized to communicate. The results did not yield sufficient information to judge

whether the educators attributed development of literacy skills to the utilization of a specific

form of technology. From the results reported in the graph, it appears that most teachers

communicate utilizing older forms of technology such as email and text rather than newly

development programs to connect school and home.

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Half of the 40 participants noted they did not observe any benefits from communicating

with parents as seen in chat 9 below. Upon receiving this result, I was quite surprised considering

the research that supports clear, observable benefits from parental involvement. However,

parental involvement in those cases is not necessarily facilitated by technology. My research

question was specifically aimed at determining the possible correlation between communication

technology and literacy. The two answers most closely related to student literacy were “increased

language fluency” and “increased vocabulary.” Teachers who utilized Google Classroom or a

classroom website often indicated that students displayed “increased language fluency.” This

appears to indicate that communication with parents utilizing technology possibly assists fluency

and vocabulary. This correlation could be affirmed through research which indicates the benefits

of parental involvement on student fluency and vocabulary. These benefits probably arise from
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parents reading to and with students as well as the exposure of the students to the vocabulary

utilized by their parents in everyday language and in reading. The question should read, “Have

you seen benefits from using technology to communicate and collaborate with parents,

specifically in regards to student literacy? In what ways have you seen the effects?”

Teachers also responded to how parental involvement impacts student literacy the most.

The chart below for question 10 illustrates my findings. The overall achievement of students in

class was indicated by teachers as an aspect of student literacy which is benefited the most by

parental collaboration. Oral communication skills, student interest, and comprehension were

three other high scoring aspects selected by participants. The evidence provided by this question

supports past research as far as the benefits of parental involvement, yet it does not specifically

indicate that collaboration and communication through technology resulted in these beneficial

results.
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Overall, the results of this study indicate that educators clearly value communication with

the parents and guardians of the students. The quality of technology most valued by educators as

indicated by the responses to question 11 of the form included communicating via texting and

emailing. According to the form, teachers most probably utilize technology merely for the ease

and speed of communication with the parent. Perhaps, educators should consider the possible

indirect effects of communicating with parents through technology. In the study, teachers did

observe literacy benefits to collaborating with parents. However, this was not my action research

question. My action research question was whether observable benefits arose as a result of

communicating with parents via technology. The majority of participants answered they had not

observed any benefits yet had observed benefits from collaborating with parents. The research I

have completed can be utilized to benefit teachers in the ability to communicate more effectively

and efficiently with parents especially regarding student literacy.

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Recommendations

Based on the results of this study, I believe that more research should be performed to

explore the correlation between utilizing technology to communicate with parents specifically

regarding student literacy. The survey I conducted was an effective manner of gathering

information, yet the questions posed were not worded exactly enough to provide sufficient

information on the results of collaborating with parents via technology. According to the studies

in the included literature reviews, there is a correlation between parental involvement and student

literacy (Hemmerechts, Agirdag, and Kavadias, 2017; Patrikakou, 2016). Technology can serve

as an intermediary connection between home and school (Patrikakou, 2016). Moreover, students,

parents, and teachers need to learn to properly utilize technology and become proficient in

technology literacy which is becoming an essential part of modern-day life and the professional

world (Ejikeme and Okpala, 2016). All of these factors influenced me to choose this research

topic. However, I did not receive the results that I hoped for. Teachers indicated no noticeable

benefits to literacy through communicating with parents via technology.

Additional limitations of this study included the breadth of the information gathered. It

was difficult to interpret and analyze the information given the variety of questions posed to

participants. For future study, I will ensure to make my questions more streamlined and

consistently themed. Rather than asking about literacy in general, I would investigate possible

benefits in specific areas of student literacy such as only in oral communication or vocabulary.

Furthermore, rather than assuming that participants understand terms in the form, I would

identify and explicitly the define terms such as “language fluency.” I might also identify a

specific technological communication program to research on how it might be used to benefit

student literacy by establishing a partnership between home and school.

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Because of the limitations of this study, I would not completely dismiss communication

technology as a means of developing literacy skills. Rather, further exploration should be

completed on why teachers may not perceive benefits. Additionally, the information gathered

through my Google Form might be utilized to design a means of communication specifically

designed for educators and parents to collaborate in helping the students to develop literacy

skills. Participants in the survey indicated that observable benefits arose from collaboration, but

not necessarily from collaboration via technology. In this world of constant technological

advancement, developers of educational technology should consider the implications and

benefits of designing a method of connecting parents and teachers so that children can continue

to develop literacy skills both in a school and home setting.

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References

Agirdag, O., Hemmerechts, K., Kavadias, D. (2017). The relationship between parental literacy

involvement, socio-economic status and reading literacy. Educational Review, 69(1) 85-

101.

Barrett, R., & Kim, J. T. (2018). The role of learners’ attitudes toward parental involvement in

L2 English learning. English Language Teaching, 12(1), 18-29.

Brown, E., Rosenthal, J., & Dynega, N. (2018). Teaching strategies to develop a family-school

literacy partnership. International Journal of Whole Schooling, 14(1), 31-56.

Dearing, E., Tang, S., Weiss, H. B. (2011). Spanish-speaking Mexican-American families’

involvement in school-based activities and their children’s literacy: The implication of

having teachers who speak Spanish and English. Early Childhood Research Quarterly,

27(2012), 177-187.

Ejikeme, A. N., & Okpala, H. N. (2017). Promoting children’s learning through technology

literacy: Challenges to school librarians in the 21st century. Education and Information

Technologies, 22(3), 1163–1177.

Patrikakou, E., N. (2016). Parent involvement, technology, and media: Now what? School

Community Journal, 26(2), 9-24.

Reutzel, D. R., & Cooter, R. B. (2012). Teaching children to read: The teacher makes the

difference (6th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson.

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Appendix A

Survey Responses
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Appendix B

Links to Artifacts

Link to Google Forms survey: https://forms.gle/garJE4kQ99d1JLSDA

Link to Google Forms Responses: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CF8XgyeTS-X1I-

zNLFXSLVHFmn4mooX83SpFouYAUMU/edit?usp=sharing