Journal 8

A '"Fantastic Super" Use of Technology: Closing the Digital Divide
Diane Curtis

At Mary Scroggs Elementary School, in North Carolina, teachers, students and families are very integrated in using technologies to keep up with quick communication, updates on students' progress and keeping the parents in the loop with daily or weekly newsletters. Every teacher at the school has their own web page where much information is shared between teachers and parents. Students collaborate with teachers to write a summary of what they did during school that day. Parents can already know what took place instead of playing twenty questions after school. This encourages more productive communication about the child's experience and learning at school. Parents are highly encouraged to email teachers any questions or concerns in order to keep the communication open. Teachers at this school are actually treated as professionals and practice certain practices like paring younger teachers with more experienced teachers so the learning curve is greater. The school is designed around being more technologically advanced. Teachers have offices and a personal phone at their expense. However, teachers make great use of their assets by allowing students to use the phone to call various businesses for different class projects. The school receives a major grant from BellSouth and in return the school keeps their obligation to integrate technology in the classrooms and curriculum. For parents who do not have computers, BellSouth provides them with a system that allows them access to the Internet so they can stay up to date with the newsletters and websites.

Even though I most likely will not be working at a school like this, what ideas can I take from the school and use myself?

I can certainly use the newsletters on a weekly basis, maybe even twice a week. I think the newsletters are a great way to keep all parents informed about what is happening in the classroom. working with special education students can sometimes present a situation where the child cannot tell their parents what happened and therefore a consistent form of communication to the parents would be great.

How can I overcome the issue of not all families having access to a computer for email?

In the newsletters I can provide the school number to my classroom or even a personal phone number so that parents who can not email me can call me for any questions. Or I can encourage parents to come in before or after school to talk in person with me about their child's progress or what is going on in general.

Curtis , D (2002). A '"Fantastic Super" use of technology: Closing the digital divide. Retrieved January 7, 2009, from Edutopia Web site: http://www.edutopia.org/fantastic-super-use-technology