Twittering with Parents?

When TLN Forum member Ellen B. asked about using Twitter with parents, tech-besotted Bill Ferriter, The Tempered Radical, had some good thoughts.

Ellen wrote:

I have been thinking about how easy it would be to keep in communication about my classroom with Twitter. What I'd like is feedback and/or stories about how it's worked for you.

1. Have you tried using Twitter with parents? How did that work for you?

2. Is there a downside, provided I have a school-only Twitter account?

I'm not looking to replace the other ways I communicate with parents, but I am looking to expand it beyond relying on my 8th graders to get papers home in a timely manner. Are there other ideas that have worked better for you?

Bill replied:

Twitter On, Ellen! While I'm not Twittering with parents yet---I don't want to have separate accounts for personal and professional use--it's definitely an idea worth pursuing because it's easy times ten for you. The messages that you post in Twitter are short, so it won't take you much time to update parents, and there is no concrete, direct way for people to reply---so you're not generating a ton of responses that you've got to spend time answering.

The other thing that I love is that you can Twitter from anywhere--including most phones--so posting the last minute thing that you think of after you shut down your computer and walk out the door is no sweat at all. The process of making updates is so much easier -- and the expectation for volume of content is so much lower than a teacher website -- that the process of communicating is no longer intimidating.

Another benefit is that parents don't have to be Twittering to follow your update. All Twitter users have their own publicly available page where people can read their Tweets. Here's mine:

http://twitter.com/plugusin

So parents could just bookmark that page and see your updates right away. And each Twitter page has it's own RSS feed, so if you have any tech savvy parents who are using feed readers, they can get your updates automatically.

What barriers can I see? The only one that pops to mind is that parents who are Twitter users can flame you in the @replies section if they wanted to--and those @replies can be seen by a broader community of people than the email blasts that parents pop off every now and then.

But that risk isn't prevented by NOT having a Twitter account for class updates. Parents using Twitter---or writing blogs, or talking at the grocery store, or sending email, or using short-wave radio (I know, I know, I'm exaggerating)---can always find ways to criticize teachers if they want to.

So in the end, I say go for it!

Comments

[Kevin Chan]

One of the problems I envision, as it is Twitter's largest concern is that it is not able to sustain the interest levels from users. Currently it has retention rate of around 30-40%. Those are the numbers even after the endorsement provided by Oprah, CNN, and Ashton Kutcher on it.

Point is either the parents or the kids would lose interest in tweeting, before it becomes a social tool for communication between them.

[John Norton]

Not sure about the logic here. If Twitter serves a need for a segment of parents, they'll stick. It's not a sole solution but could be part of the solution. For the time being. It has a number of pluses, not the least of which is quick, regular communication to sustain attention and at least light engagement. Tapping into this engagement in more substantive ways would be a logical next step.

[Brian]

I love the idea of connecting the classroom to home via Twitter (or similar services). Teachers can use the platform to broadcast a brief message about class daily activities ("Today we did ..."), while on field trips (tie it in with digital camera use), as a follow up for meetings, etc. It is yet another tool teachers should put in their techno-toolbox. I'd suggest creating a separate twitter account for just the class, protect it, invite parents to follow the account ("officially" approve them) and then tweet away. There are a number of apps that can help you easily manage multiple twitter accounts if you want one for each class. Don't let tweets get personal and show respect.

Bill provides some other great ways for parents to follow the stream of tweets. Ignore the stats on how many people drop use of twitter after joining. They haven't "figured it out" or don't have a particular use for it. That is fine. It should not impact the educational uses for the service (and others like if)

The classroom Twitter account can also follow museums, local interests, astronauts, scientists, other classes, etc.

Also consider Edmodo. It has been called the "Twitter for K-12 schools".

[I. Ruiz]

I have a Twitter account for my classes. I use it only from the web and I do NOT follow my students. With Twitter I can remind them of any upcoming projects or quizzes on-line that are due. It seemed to work well last year (first time) so we'll see how this year goes. The only problem I had was getting the students to get on Twitter. Many of them did not know what it was or did.

[Sue]

I already have a blog for school and parents all have the link. Most of the teachers have one and they are all linked form the school website. I post homework there. Plus I sommunicate with parents with e-mail. I would have very few parents use it so to me not worth using a 3rd level of communication.