Blogs, Web sites keep parents, alumni in the loop
Earlier this year, officials at the Landon School noticed that young alumni weren't visiting the school's Web site to catch up on school happenings. So they decided to go where the students were: Facebook.
The school's page of news and notes now has nearly 500 followers.
In an age of instant information, many schools in the down county are turning to Twitter, Facebook and blogs to keep parents, community members and alumni informed.
"Everybody's using all of these different mediums for communicating now," said Westbrook Elementary School parent JoAnne Scribner, who helps coordinate the school's Twitter and blog pages. "And instead of one-way communication like it used to be, now it's two-way."
Bethesda's Westbrook Elementary started using Twitter earlier this year to tell parents about expansion plans for the school. The Twitter page is an offshoot of the school's blog, which provides parents and community members with monthly updates about the school's development.
Some of the Tweets are as simple as reminders about meetings, while others carry more heft. After a recent community meeting hosted by County Councilman Roger Berliner (D-Dist. 1) of Potomac, parents took to Twitter to recount Berliner's support for an expansion to Westbrook Elementary.
"At Berliner event: Councilman's ‘shout out' in favor of the addition AND gym," read one Tweet. "‘The time is now' and we couldn't agree more. Thank you!"
Twitter is a social networking Web site on which members can post 140-character updates. The site had more than 17 million visitors in April, according to comScore Inc., which studies digital marketing. Anyone with Internet access can access the school's Tweets — an advantage in reaching a broad audience, Scribner said.
Adriana Murphy, a teacher at Green Acres School in Rockville, is responsible for the school's blog. The blog launched this summer as a way to keep parents informed of events at Green Acres' summer camp and has taken on a life of its own. Since the blog began focusing on the school itself in September, it has received more than 8,000 page views. The school enrolls 320 students.
The blog is popular because it opens a window to the school that most parents don't get to see regularly, Murphy said.
"If you can read a blog and can see pictures and watch video clips, all of a sudden you have some insight into what's going on," she said. "You've been invited to the conversation and you can participate on your time."
Most of her posts are about the students; she walks the school every Tuesday morning to find interesting items about which to write.
One of the advantages to blogs is that parents don't have to cut into family time to learn about school life, Murphy said. Meetings take up time, but a parent can be on and off a blog in one or two minutes.
Social networking platforms are particularly useful for reaching parents and students who are spending an increasing amount of time online, said Marlene Nesary, a spokeswoman for the Eugene, Ore.-based International Society for Technology in Education, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the use of information technology in learning.
"It's what the kids and parents are at home with, and it's really important to be able to meet them where they are," she said.
Follow the construction at Westbrook
Elementary School at
www.westbrookexpansion.wordpress.com
Get updates from Green Acres School at www.greenacresschool.wordpress.com
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