Okay, first let me say that this post is geared towards middle school and high school because that’s where my kids are now.  Second, let me say that I’m pleased as punch that some of my kids’ teachers are utilizing their web pages to communicate information like curriculum, homework requirements, upcoming events, etc.  I’m sure it’s a big time saver for them since they no longer have to make dozens of copies of handouts to send home with the kids every time they give them an assignment.  Unfortunately it has caused an issue on our end (the parents’ end): we now have to check every teachers web site in order to get an idea of what our kids are supposed to be doing.  This requires the following:

• Remembering to visit the teachers’ pages each day.
• Visiting each teacher’s page. Sounds easy until you consider that we have three kids with at least six teachers each.  That’s 18 web sites if you’re counting.
• Finding the daily assignments on each teacher’s site.  Some use the school system’s calendar, other’s use the document manager function.
• Jotting down the assignments if they have them there.

Now our kids are old enough that in a perfect world they would be responsible enough to do their homework every time, but this ain’t a perfect world and we don’t have perfect kids.  So when we get an interim report that shows some missing work we like to get the 411 on what happened.  That can be difficult to do if your only source of information is the offending kid and if the missing work happens to be from a class with a teacher who doesn’t post his calendar online. 

What I propose as a win-win for everyone is that the teachers put the same data in a system that allows us to receive updates by email or RSS feeds. I’m thinking they could each have a blog that they could use to communicate with
parents and students, easily sharing study guides, providing updates to
the curriculum, providing links to outside resources and anything that might help the students.  While at first blush it might seem that it creates more work for them, I’d say it’s easier than the mish-mash of communications they currently have and it enables parents to "subscribe" to get updates which would make life a lot easier for everyone at home.  They could also add things like Google Calendar to provide a schedule of upcoming events, and maybe figure out a way to include those events in the RSS feeds or email updates.

Obviously it would be best if the school system would provide a system like this for teachers, but waiting for that could mean that it will be available when my grandkids are in high school.  It would be better if someone mashes up a system for them using free services like Google’s collaboration tools and then makes it easy for them to use it.  Of course they could do it themselves, but the idea here is to create something that’s ready to drive as soon as they turn the key.  I don’t want them wasting time learning how to make they system work for them, I want them to be able to click on the site and instantly realize how they are going to have a much easier time from that point forward.  That’s why I think if someone took the free tools out there and tweaked them to fit teachers’ unique needs and made it blindingly simple to use you’d have a chance at them actually using it. 

On the other end of the equation if parents were shown how to use a feed reader like Google Reader then they would quickly realize how much easier it would be to stay on top of all this information.  Take it from someone who’s tried, it’s difficult to explain why a feed reader is useful.  However, once someone sees you using it then they quickly understand. 

One thorny issue would be the kids with no computer at home.  The simple answer is that the teachers could simply print off as many copies as needed for those students and in the long run they’d still end up saving time and effort, not to mention paper.

As I was typing this it occurred to me that I might have been making it too complicated.  An EASY solution would be for teachers to set up their own Facebook pages specifically for their classes, then "friend" their students and their students’ parents.  Since Facebook is a social network it already has the tools that teachers would need to effectively communicate with students and parents. They could post whatever information they want.  Assignments could be set up as events in the calendar along with field trips, projects, and the like.  Documents could be uploaded and shared.  Pictures from class events could be shared.  Video of lessons could be posted.  Whatever.  Best of all their "friends" would be notified automatically via the updates.  Actually, best of all is little or no training needed.

Sure it requires everyone signing up for Facebook, but since the majority of students at the junior high and high school level already seem to be there then the only real issue are the adults, and if they think it will make their lives easier then they will most likely do it.  Let’s just say that when the parents see all of the teachers’ communication in one place (the status update page), and when the teachers see that they only have to type once for everyone to see it they’ll probably wonder how they got along without it. Not a perfect solution, but probably better than anything we have right now.