It’s no news that these days almost everyone – right from a 3 year old toddler to a 70 year old retiree & from the roadside hawker to the rich businessman – is hooked to the smartphone. The growth of smartphone usage especially amongst the younger generation has been huge.
Yet some educators still use costly & semi-effective methods like SMS packages & complex Chat apps to communicate with students & their parents. We wrote recently about the tips to keep in mind while communicating with students, in this piece we will focus on what’s the best solution available?
We will try our best that you get your answer to that by understanding the 8 reasons why teachers should engage students and parents on their mobile phones:
Accessibility: Due to the wide usage of mobile phones, all academic-related information can become easily available for students & parents at any time and place if teachers send study materials & messages on their phones.
Retention: As already said, everyone is engrossed with their phones most of the time these days. If students/parents get educational updates on their phones they would become more reactive towards their/ their child’s studies & treat it as a part of their fun mobile life. It will make students enjoy studies and develop additional interest in it.
Cost Effective: Using mobile apps (we’re not talking chat apps here) to be in touch with students & parents is much cheaper than any other mode of communication since most of the apps can be downloaded & used for free.
Additionally, you also make the world a greener place to live in when you send out notes (in pdf, word, etc. formats) to students through these apps (instead of distributing hard copies).
Hastening: It makes the exchange of information & study materials as quick as the speed of light!!
The gap between teachers & student-parents: Times have changed & a distance has emerged between teachers & student-parents these days. Teachers who connect with student-parents on their phones show that they care & get the glory that they deserve.
Widening Participation: Engaging students on the phone leads to further involvement of students in studies. They take deeper interest in what’s going on in school, college, classes, etc and tend to participate more in the classroom activities.
Academic Rigour: In today’s education system what we really need is rigour for knowledge. Young companies such as Arch – The Way, a specially built app for teacher-student-parent communication understand the space from different stakeholders’ perspective & helps teachers to connect with their students/parents personally. Students’ queries and doubts can be solved by the teachers through this app. Hence, this takes students one step ahead towards attaining the academic rigour.
Embracing New Technology: With the rapid growth of technology it is very important to use it for productive purposes. Tools like Arch helps teachers replace the traditional ways of communication with students & parents, with a much simpler & effective way.
So engage your students & parents on their phones & see how you make the world a better place to live in. Connect with them either through web or Android app, as per your convenience!
We would love to know what has your experience been in communicating with students and parents. What is that you look for in a tool to make the task of communication easy? Do share with us.
