Communication plays an important role when it comes to virtual education. We live in a time of hardship where the pandemic is on the rise and creates quite the devastation across the planet. As a result, many lives are at stake, and many are lost. In the wake of creating a better and more livable society, people are now adapting to newer communication tools. Schools are no more limited to age-old traditional methods of education. They are now transforming the way they once used to educate the world.
Thanks to effective communication, teachers can now educate their students from the comforts of their homes. Not only that, but they can stay interconnected with them, monitor their activities, and guide them through and through. These same tools are also assisting parents in staying in touch with the teachers.
As a result, a connective world has transpired, giving room to a much-connected education system.
A community only grows when they are connected perfectly. We are living in a time & age where connectivity is of the utmost importance. Thanks to technology, it is now very achievable.
What Communication Tools Are the Best for School Communities?
We live in a day and age where everything we own is part of technology.
From smartphones to laptops, there are different gadgets which many of us use in our daily lives.
We use them to talk to each other, share pictures, videos, funny memes, and whatnot.
What if we use communication tools for educational purposes?
A website or a blog:
The primary source of information for a school is its website or blog page. A website ensures the digital presence of a school on the Internet. People can use it to communicate with the administrative bodies of the institution.
Social media:
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, in short, social media, has become the primary source of information these days. We can also direct the school community members to the updated website content through social media. It is the most effective way to spread information around.
Email:
Emailing news and relevant stuff to the school community enhances communication. It also has a fair chance of not being overlooked.
WhatsApp:
It has become common now to have respective groups on WhatsApp to share information among large communities. For example, each teacher has his/her class in a WhatsApp group to circulate news, changes, announcements, and notices among students and their parents.
The school notice board:
Although it is an old school method of communication, it is still in use. The notice board holds all the important news and information for a specific time frame. The school website can also have an online notice board serving the same purpose, virtually.
Online glossary:
Some schools have their own set of acronyms or jargon referring to something. It is advisable to keep your language simple to communicate. Additionally, if your school has such a set of languages, you should have an online glossary for your school community members’ convenience.
Education-specific websites or blogs:
When you want to communicate with the general society or the potential school community members, you can opt to collaborate. You can get featured by a website dedicated to education like Mydegree.com. Such websites rank better on search engines, and your school is probable to get the communication through.
You can learn how to make effective communication among the school community, by reading this.
Tech-tools for effective communication between teachers and students:
Technology provides handy tools to the school faculty to stay well connected with the student body. Classroom tools include:
Such tools create an engaging environment for students and parents at the same time. A virtual class where everyone learns together.
Benefits of providing communication tools to school communities:
Why do we believe it is essential for school communities to provide communication tools? Here are some increasing benefits of having proper communication tools for school communities to work along with.
Timeliness:
What good is a piece of information when not received timely? The online communication tools provide you the benefit of providing “timely” information to the receivers.
Speed:
Imagine having a Color day activity at school. You type the circular, get it printed, and send it by post to all the students. It reaches their homes after days. Now compare it with the modern communication tools. Here you post it online, and it reaches the students right away.
Effectiveness:
The modern communication tools for school communities possess different features to enhance the intended message’s effectiveness. You can use audios, videos, text, pictures, slideshows, or combinations of these, whichever conveys the message.
Easy to post, store, and retrieve:
It is effortless to work on these communication tools. Designed to be user friendly, these tools allow you to post various media like text, audio, visuals, and pictures as suitable. You do not have to worry about storing the information. When needed, the retrieval is as easy as scrolling down the screen.
Interactivity:
Half of the beauty of the modern communication tools designed for school communities lies in interactivity. It is no more a one-way communication. Now the students and the parents can also interact with the teachers and the school management.
Discussions and idea generation:
Having interactivity in place, the school community members can have useful discussions resulting in fruitful idea generation. It can help the faculty choose the best practices for education and drop the ones not proving helpful.
Parent involvement:
Parent involvement is a key feature in modern ways of education. Also, they can be very helpful when invited to join hands in shaping their kids’ future. In this way, weak students can get extra help, and the best students can get a chance to shine more. It is easier to keep the parents involved through the communication tools now available.
Sense of belongingness:
The teachers and the parents need to communicate with each other. When they work collectively towards the children’s personal and educational development, they feel “belonged” to the school. It nurtures customer loyalty, speaking in a business sense.
Brainstorming sessions for students:
Through the modern communication tools in place, it is easy to initiate brainstorming sessions virtually in the lockdown.
Virtual competitions:
Inter-school or intra-school competitions can be held and celebrated through modern tools for communication. Students feel motivated to learn when competing with others.
Tracking student performance:
Teachers can track student performance using the features of these communication tools.
Tracking teacher performance:
The schools are using high tech educational tools to conduct classes online. In this way, the school administrators can also keep a check on the teacher’s performance. They can be a part of the sessions any time they want.
Change management:
When there is a change, it is imperative to communicate it to those affected. These tools of communication can prove handy in such situations.
Cost-effectiveness:
Printing and sending circulars through the post has a cost element to it. On the other hand, the communication tools developed for the school communities prove to be cost-effective.
Eco friendly:
Amazingly, it has a green aspect. Moving from print media to online media of communication leads to a paper-free environment; saving trees, saving nature.