You'd think I would know better, having been through administrator school and all. (I heard "Informing and valuing all stakeholders is the key for successful implementation!" so many times I probably mumbled it in my sleep.) But when you're wading through new technology territory, your time gets so consumed by transforming the vision of school for 120+ students that the idea that parents need to be convinced, listened to, and informed of this new vision gets shoved to one side, lonely and neglected.
Now that I have had some time to reflect, here are my top 4 tips for parent issues and concerns when starting a 1:1 computing initiative:
1) Communicate, communicate, communicate. And then communicate some more. Many of the problems I had with parents this year came from not communicating enough with parents and from miscommunication between what I would say in class and what was told to parents at home. I think a parent meeting night about a month into the school year would be very beneficial. That way, information could be distributed to them about expectations regarding the netbooks, and parents could have a forum where there questions could get answered directly from the teachers using the technology. Also, let parents know that they are free to contact you at any time about any questions or concerns they have, so the conversations about technology and its importance can keep going. If your school is like mine, we request parent e-mails and put them into out student management system. You could use these e-mails to reach out to parents at the very start of the year, informing them about what you're doing from day one, and opening the door to future communication. While there will always be parents that disagree with how a 1:1 initiative is being implemented, realize that most parents will support you once they understand the rationale behind what you're doing. Taking the time to involve them from the start will be worth it.
2) If you're implementing blended learning correctly, eventually you'll get accused of not doing your job. Blended learning can mean many things, but it implies that your classroom becomes more student-centered and less teacher-centered. This means you must plan for learning rather than teaching by developing web-based instructional activities and formative assessments, and then using that formative assessment data to provide further relevant learning experiences, remediation or enrichment. You may want to start the year with more teacher-centered activities as you teach students how to learn the technology, and gradually take away your teacher "support" throughout the year until the students are doing the majority of the work of learning. (This is called the "gradual release of responsibility model.") It is when you plan for students to do the bulk of the work of learning on their own that you will get calls (sometimes anonymous) and strongly-worded emails telling you that you are not doing your job by not filling your students' heads with information and having them parrot it back to you. Students and parents will resist efforts to have students learn to learn on their own, simply because it's not their vision of how school is "done." However, in this 21st century world, independent learning is a vital skill they need to learn to compete successfully in college and in their future adult life. This needs to be emphasized repeatedly throughout the year, to both students and parents. They won't appreciate it now, but they will after they leave your class.
3) Survey parent attitudes towards technology early. The information gleaned from a parent survey of attitudes towards and their use of technology will help immensely, especially if done early in the school year. This will help you plan for instruction, and, when trying anything new, will help you address parent concerns. In other words, you won't be blindsided by parent complaints if you already have an idea of what the major parent concerns and attitudes are. A good time to do this might be at the parent meeting mentioned in #1, or you can create a Google Form or use a Survey Monkey survey and put a link to it on the school or class website for parents to take by a certain date.
4) Involve parents in learning the technology with students. Parents are a valuable resource in any 1:1 computing initiative; but, in order to support your program, sometimes they need to be educated in technology use first. If, after surveying your parents, you discover that the majority of them are not technology savvy, you may want to create a program for parents to learn the web 2.0 tools and/or software their students are using in class on a daily basis. You could enlist the help of your media center director, IT staff, or administrators in putting together a program during the day, or you could organize an after-school program. Whatever you choose, this will help parents be much more informed about what their students are doing (and give you more support at home if students complain that the tech is too hard to learn), as well as enabling parents to help their students use the technology outside of class. It will also go a long way in changing any traditional views of school.
Have any other tips regarding parent involvement in a 1:1 computing initiative? Please feel free to share them in the comments below.