Samantha Jackson

Graduate Portfolio

Standard 6 Reflection:

EDET 620: Educational Technology: Applications, Applied Research, and Integration - Apply

technology-supported communication strategies to the development of meaningful learning

environments as well as improve and increase the amount and type of interaction with all

stakeholders in the teaching and learning enterprise (parents, administrators, teachers, experts

etc.) (NAGC-CEC 6:S2, 10:S1-6, ACEI 5.2; NCTE 2.2, 4.5, AAHPERD 9.3; NCTM 6.1;

NMSA K3.5, K3.8, P3.9; NCATE 5c, 7a, 7b; INTASC 4, 5, 6, 10)

Radford University

Fall 2022
 For teachers, communication is a key skill they need to develop over time. In the course

Educational Technology, students take a look at how they can use technology to improve their

communication with parents. For this class, the second standard I selected is to; “Apply

technology-supported communication strategies to the development of meaningful learning

environments as well as improve and increase the amount and type of interaction with all

stakeholders in the teaching and learning enterprise (parents, administrators, teachers, experts

etc.).” Developing communication is extremely important because to help students be

successful, teachers need to communicate with the parents and administrators, especially with

middle school students. Middle school is where teachers start having students have more

accountability with their grades, actions, and assignments before going to high school. The key

to holding the students accountable is communicating with parents. To improve my

communication with parents I use emails, TalkingPoints Application, and Google Meet options

for conferencing. These tools have been very helpful in keeping parents involved in what is

happening in the classroom and helping to keep the students accountable.

The main way I communicate with parents throughout the year is through emails. Most

parents prefer to communicate through email about their child unless there is a need for a phone

call. In fact, 20% of the 20 parents who filled out my parent survey this year said that their

preferred mode of teacher-to-parent contact is through email. In this technological age, more

parents prefer the ease and high-speed option of email over a typical phone call. For my class, I

use email to send out class updates and quiz/test reminders as well as school reminders. I also

use it to send parents personal emails about their child and how they are doing in my class. I

remember being surprised when I started teaching in 2020 and the parents were shocked that I

was actually calling them to let them know about things that were happening in class. To help
my administrators, I log my parent contact in our software that way they can refer to this as

needed throughout the year. However, communication with parents who cannot speak English

can be challenging. Luckily, there are a bunch of new applications that can be used to help fill

this gap for teachers and parents.

This standard on communicating with technology has helped me understand the

importance of making sure all parents can receive classroom communications. To help me

communicate with parents who do not speak English, or who are not confident in their English-

Speaking skills, I use the application called TalkingPoints. There are other similar apps, like

Remind or Class Dojo, but TalkingPoints has worked the best for me. TalkingPoints is an

application that can be accessed by the teacher through their phone or computer. Teachers can

use it to send messages to all parents in their preferred language. Since these parents have a hard

time reading emails, I usually must add them to my TalkingPoints class myself. This will send

the parent a translated text message directly to their phone. Then, the parent can continue

receiving text messages or they can download the app to their phone. This application has

helped me because the parents can then respond to me in their language, and it will translate it to

English. This helps me to involve all my students' parents in their learning and progress in my

class. Any mass emails I send out, I will post in TalkingPoints as well. For example, in Artifact

6b you will see a message informing parents that students will have a Unit Test coming up. This

announcement was sent to the parents, and it shows me how many of them read it (if they have

the app). Once I send it out parents can message me directly if they have any questions. If they

need to reach out to me, they can also just send me a direct message at any time. This standard

has opened my eyes to how effective communication with all the parents of my students is and

truly helps my students succeed in my class.

 Using Technology to help me communicate better with my parents has also caused me to

make sure I am giving them options when they need to meet with me. Parents are extremely

busy throughout the week, and they cannot always make time for an in-person conference with a

teacher. Conferences are extremely important to make sure that students are making progress in

class and give parents an insight into their child’s day at school. For parent teacher conferences

this year we offered a Google Meets as an option for meeting with teachers. Offering Google

Meets has allowed many parents to have a quick conference with me from the comfort of their

home or during a break at work. I have never had more parents sign up for parent-teacher

conferences than this year! Incorporating Google Meets into our communication toolbox has

been a game changer for talking to parents. We have still been using them for I.E.P. and 504

meetings and it has helped encourage so many parents to meet with the teacher. We also add

Google Meet codes to our Professional Learning Community Meetings to allow our

administrators an easy way to connect with us during our meetings on days when getting to

meetings all over the school building can be hard.

Communication is a key part of being an effective teacher. The course on Educational

Technology helped us explore different ways of incorporating technology into our classes and

activities. The second standard I chose from this course is to “Apply technology-supported

communication strategies to the development of meaningful learning environments as well as

improve and increase the amount and type of interaction with all stakeholders in the teaching and

learning enterprise (parents, administrators, teachers, experts etc.).” This standard has caused me

to think of all the ways I can use technology in the classroom. Email communication, Talking

Points, and utilizing Google Meet options are just three of the ways this class and standard have

inspired me and my communication with parents. I look forward to continuing the use of these
options in the future and building a powerful team between myself and the parents of my

students.