symposium on parent engagement - session 1 "connecting with the new digital parents"

Symposium on parent engagement:

Connecting with the new digital parentsJulie Evans, CEO: Project Tomorrow

Connecting with the new digital parents

Julie Evans, Project Tomorrow CEO

October 22, 2013

A big thank you to:

© 2013 Project Tomorrow

Today’s Agenda

Who is this New Digital Parent?

Digital Parents and School Communications

Creating a Shared Vision with your Digital Parents

New Considerations

Discussion

The New Digital Parent Profile

Source:

Speak Up 2012 National Research Project Data Findings

Profile based upon:

Parents’ highly value the use of technology in

education

They are mobilists – they use mobile devices

They have personal experience with online learning

And parents are strongly interested in digital school-

to-home communications

Annual national research project

Online surveys + focus groups

Open for all K-12 schools and schools of education

Institutions receive free report with their own data

Collect ideas ↔ Stimulate conversations

K-12 Students, Teachers, Parents, Administrators

Pre-Service Teachers in Schools of Education

Inform policies & programs

Analysis and reporting of findings and trends

Consulting services to help transform teaching and learning

Speak Up National Research Project

+ 3 million surveys since 2003

K-12 Students 364,233

Teachers & Librarians 56,346

Parents (in English & Spanish) 39,713

School/District Administrators 5,511

Technology Leaders 500

About the participating schools & districtso 8,020 schools and 2,431 districts

o 30% urban / 43% rural / 27% suburban

o All 50 states + DC

Honor Roll of States with highest participation:

TX, CA, OH, IN, AL, NC, WI, AZ, FL, PA

National Speak Up 2012 Participation: 466,303

Introducing:

New Administrator’s Guide to

Reaching Digital Parents

A special collaboration of

Schoolwires and Project Tomorrow

How Important is the Use of Technology to

Student Success?

© Project Tomorrow 2013

Cell phone without

Internet access

Smartphone Tablet computer

Parents in 2008

90% 32% 5%

Parents in 2012

35% 73% 49%

Parents are mobilists!

Personal Access to Mobile Devices – from 2008 to 2012



Parents have first hand experience with online learning

I have taken an online class:

For work or job training 43%

For an academic/college program 29%

To learn new skills 22%

To explore a hobby 13%

For traffic school 7%

* Since 2009 – increase of 65 percent!


Benefits of online learning

All

Parents

New

Digital

Parents

Students can work at their own pace 62% 73%

Students can review materials as often

as wanted/needed59% 72%

To take a class not offered at school 51% 67%

To get college or advanced credit 43% 64%

To increase student engagement in

learning30% 37%


New Digital Parent Profile

Value proposition for the use of technology in education

Personal usage of mobile devices

Personal experience with online learning

Strong interest in digital school-to-home communications

37% of parents of school-aged

children fit this profile today


What administrators need to know:

other key characteristics or expectations

1. Distribution of digital parents within the

grade bands

30% of parents with students in K-2

36% of parents with students in Gr 3-5




What administrators need to know:

other key characteristics or expectations

1. Distribution of digital parents within the

grade bands 30% of parents with students in K-2




2. Digital parents are social media users!

51% use Skype

65% regularly update a social networking site

19% are tweeting


What social media do you

regularly use in your personal

life?

Elementary

School

Parents

Middle

School

Parents

High School

Parents

Communicating via text

messages

86% 86% 86%

Maintaining a social

networking site

62% 55% 52%

Watching online videos 40% 36% 34%

Streaming online TV shows 37% 34% 32%

Playing online or mobile app

games

30% 28% 25%

Using Twitter 14% 13% 13%


University of Chicago study:

“Strong parent-community-school ties”

is one of the essential five supports for

school improvement.


University of Chicago study:

“Strong parent-community-school ties” is one of the essential five supports for school

improvement.

Yet, only 21% of parents say that communications

with their child’s school

is very effective.


Communications with parents matters!

37% of administrators see engaging parents as co-teachers as key to student achievement

71% of principals want new teachers to have training during their preparation programs in how to use tech to communicate with parents

26% of administrators call “effective parent communications” a significant challenge, however!


Communications with parents matters!

Some schools and districts are already tapping into tech tools to engage/connect/communicate with parents:

Digital/phone notification systems 54%

Social media 41%

Twitter 17%


0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Twitter

Skype

Facebook

Class blogs

Mobile app

Text messaging

Portal with grade info

Personal emails

Tech Leaders: currently supporting these tools

Principals: say these tools are beneficial

New Digital Parents: want to use these tools


Imagine you are designing the ultimate

school for today’s students,

what technologies would have the

greatest impact on learning?

Do we have a shared vision

for digital learning?


All Parents Digital Parents

Online textbooks 56% 65%

Educational mobile apps 53% 63%

Digital content 50% 59%

Tablets 43% 56%

School wide Internet 45% 54%

BYOD 40% 54%

School portal 51% 57%

Online classes 36% 45%

Social media 12% 18%

Games 12% 16%

What tech tools and resources are worthy of greater

school investments?


0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

School wide Internet

Games

Online textbooks

Tablets

Teachers Principals Digital Parents

The ultimate elementary school for today’s learners must

include:


The ultimate middle school for today’s learners must include:

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%


Digital content

Online textbooks

Mobile apps



The ultimate high school for today’s learners must include:

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%


BYOD

Online classes

Social media



Ways to engage the “New Digital Parents” in your

school or district planning processes:

Use social media to explore ideas

Host an online discussion forum

Start an online parent school with informational classes

and workshops

Demonstrate value of current and future technology

initiatives

Think “digital inclusion” not exclusion

Align your communications tools to parent needs

Ask parents their ideas!

National Speak Up Findings and reports

Targeted and thematic reportsOnline learning trendsMobile learning & social mediaPrint to digital migrationSocial learning Intelligent adaptive softwareNew digital parent series

Presentations, podcasts and webinars

Services: consulting, workshops, evaluation and efficacy studies

More Speak Up? www.tomorrow.org


Your thoughts, comments, questions

(c) Project Tomorrow 2013

Julie Evans

Project Tomorrow

[email protected]

949-609-4660 x15

Twitter: JulieEvans_PTand SpeakUpEd

Copyright Project Tomorrow 2013

This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted

for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes,

provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced

materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the

author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written

permission from the author.


Let’s continue this discussion!

mailto:[email protected]

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