the 1:1 Parent Open House: Show and Tell

Parent Open House for my school district is this week.  The parents get the opportunity to go through their child's schedule and spend a grand total of 10 minutes in each class.  What am I going to say?  I mean 10 minutes isn't exactly a long time, and there's so many things that I could talk about.  Being that it is a 1:1 class, and for most, it's their first, I will be doing some show and tell.

Ultimately, it comes down to this:  how do I help their child learn with technology.

The show and tell time for the parents will examine some of things that I 've been posting about on this Blog.  I will show them some of the tools we use, but their assignment will be to go home and ask their child to show them the following things:

1.  Schoology - their child should show them how the resources are posted, the calendar, and how they turn in assignments
2.  Notability - their child should show them how they can write things down and file them away
3.  Flipboard - their child should show them how Flipboard can be used to organize places on the web that they visit often including the next item
4.  Blogger -- their child should show them their blog and explain to them why they write every week
5.  Educreations - their child should show them how they can simultaneously record both their written and verbal explanations (fortunately, we just did our first one the other day)

That's a pretty good list.  In fact, it may be too much considering I will also be explaining how I am helping their child learn with each item.

I am also anticipating a few questions:
Q1: My child appears to be very public on the internet because of your class.  Shouldn't they be protected?
A1:  Most students are already publicly posting things on social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.  I will be teaching the students how to post appropriately and successuly brand their online image.  They've never learned this before.

Q2:  My child is always on that device.  How do I know they are really doing work?
A2:  Ask for them to show you what they are working on.  Take an interest and see if you can help.

Q3:  If my child doesn't feel comfortable with the device, can they use a notebook, paper, and pen?
A3:  Yes


There are known unknowns out there.  I would appreciate any input.