School leaders are always looking for ways to get members of their community—most commonly the parents of their students—involved with what kids are doing in the classroom. Today’s students are accomplishing so much especially when it comes to innovative learning and, all too often, their parents don’t get to truly see what they’re working on. That’s why many schools have created the trend of family tech nights, which are similar to community nights if you’ve ever been to one of those. Essentially, one night a month, a quarter, or a year is set aside for students to show off some of the work they’ve done, the projects they’ve completed, and the skills they’ve learned. In the case of family tech nights, however, they’re also able to demonstrate their tech skills and teach their parents, too!
Tech Nights and Closing the Digital Divide
There’s no denying that learning together often leads to more prominent learning experiences for students. It may also be true that the more people that are involved in learning, like parents, for example, the more learning that actually takes place! By bringing families together for family tech nights at school, teachers and students can teach them a lot about the technology they’ve used and the ways in which it helps solve problems and create deeper learning. Family tech nights can also help classroom teachers address the digital divide. By bringing parents into the classroom, they can gain a broader understanding of each family’s at-home tech situation, which is a great way to be able to tailor instruction towards each individual child.
When chasing digital equality, the end goal is generally to ensure that all students have the opportunity to learn in an increasingly connected world with increasingly connected tools. A lot of this has to do with the technologies they have access to in the classroom, but, more and more, it includes what they do and do not have access to at home. For students who don’t have as much tech access at home, they could slip behind in terms of tech literacy compared to some of their classmates. Whether they have a lot of tech at their disposal or not, parental support is still important for all students. If parents possessed some of the same tech skills we want all students to learn, it might become easier for them to assist with tech development at home, which is why some teachers make it a point to have family tech nights in their classrooms.
Through family tech nights, teachers can actually help students start to transfer some of their tech skills to their parents. Since the amount of tech and online education students in different types of households receive (largely based on what their parents know), this provides a lot of help. By hosting family tech nights, teachers and administrators can help parents in a number of ways, including creating communities where parents can learn together, removing some of the obstacles they might face in learning about technology, establishing a clear agenda when it comes to equipping everybody with tech skills, and making everybody feel welcome. Creating a routine for students and, more importantly, parents to use technology in a productive way and on a regular basis will quickly lead to more comfort with tech and fewer barriers to learning.
Tips for Hosting a Tech Night
So, if you read the first section and think a family tech night at your school might be a good idea, you may be wondering how to go about having one. Luckily for you, we have some basic tips cooked up based on what we’ve heard work well for others in the past. Whether teachers are focused on helping students become better digital citizens, providing parents with tips for keeping connected, or offering both students and parents the chance to get more proficient at using STEM tools, tech nights can lead to a variety of benefits. One key thing to remember is that, even though they might have different perspectives for how to equip students with tech skills, both teachers and parents generally want kids to be as prepared for the future as possible and this usually means being comfortable with different types of technology. With that in mind, a family tech night can be a valuable experience for parents with children in just about any grade level.
With that being said, here are some steps educators, tech specialists, or school administrators should take when planning a family tech night. One helpful way to begin is by gaining a broader understanding of the needs of each family in the community. Sending home some questions to parents prior to the event can help teachers discover what their biggest questions and concerns are, leading to discussions and solutions that they find most useful while at the tech night. Once teachers receive that information, they can then go about identifying themes for the tech night and possibly come up with some related activities for attendees to participate in. This could involve a lot of possible options, including inviting a guest speaker, demonstrating a STEM kit, or showcasing safe digital citizenship practices to name a few.
If you can get this kind of information, then the next step might be to tap into your teacher networks. Even without this info, it’s still very helpful to ask other educators for their input. Tech specialists and IT teams can recommend the kind of devices and bandwidth required for the tech night and might even be willing to assist with troubleshooting during the event itself. Even the school’s PTA might be willing to sponsor the event and provide something as simple as food and drinks while helping to contribute to bettering the community they serve. And, if you need some additional ideas for generating interest among parents, the best advice that’s often given is to make tech night hard to miss! You can offer door prizes, find someone to watch kids at the school during the event, or even offer the program in more than one language! Making it as easy as possible for families will go a long way in ensuring that kids and parents are equipped for learning in the digital age!
Unique Ideas to Make Tech Nights Fun
While family tech nights are fairly serious and can provide a lot of education for parents, they can also be used as opportunities to have some fun. In this portion of the program, we’re going to talk about some of those approaches, which we’ve either read about, heard about, or seen. It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, but there probably are some parents of some students who might not want to take some time out of their schedule to attend something they might find somewhat boring or repetitive based on some of the tech knowledge they already have (we hate being repetitive). Aside from the classic response of “do it for the kids,’ teachers can try some other tactics to turn family tech nights from a chore into something more desirable. For anyone leading a school tech night, remember that, while the topics are serious, the way you deliver the information doesn’t always have to be!
Making family tech nights more fun could not only boost attendance numbers, but also increase engagement for those who are present. And, it doesn’t need to take a whole lot of planning or much effort at all in a lot of cases to create something that’s a little more on the fun (or even the silly) side (while still remaining serious). So, here are some simple suggestions. First, kick things off with a meme. Showing parents you can relate to one of the biggest Internet trends of the moment (or introducing them to it in a relevant way—maybe by creating your own!) could help them enjoy things a bit more. Another idea is to turn the lessons into games or contests, awarding some prizes to the winning parents or teams with the prizes related to the content that was discussed.
Getting the competitive juices flowing might be fun and can be done with a game of cybersecurity bingo. Or, maybe try broadcasting a portion of the tech night live on Periscope—that’s likely to wow some of the parents in the audience. Another idea we’ve heard is having parents anonymously write down an experience their kids have had online and tape it to the wall. Reading them all out loud could spark some insightful conversations. You could also create a hashtag for your event and encourage parents to strike up an online conversation to supplement what’s being said in the room—both during the tech night and after! See, you don’t have to do anything over the top and these simple ideas could resonate with parents and lead to a better overall experience while they learn about some important tech and digital citizenship topics!
Talking Points for a Family Tech Night
Parents are going to have questions about technology. They’re going to have concerns about the tech their kids use, too. While you may not be an expert on all of the different social media apps and websites they use outside the classroom, it’s important that parents at least feel comfortable with the technology their children are using inside the classroom as well as with the devices they have access to as part of being a student. No matter how much or how little technology is used in the classroom, parents are going to have questions. There will be some who think the amount is too low and others who might feel it is too high. As a 21st century educator, it’s become part of the job that today’s teachers address these issues with parents and hosting a family tech night is one of the most efficient ways to do so
One way to get ahead of some of the questions parents might have about technology is to create a classroom technology guide for distribution at the event. Acknowledging that classroom technology is a common and necessary component of education in the 21st century is a solid foundation on which to start. Simply talking about technology is good, but covering all bases when it comes to the different topics is even better. Teachers should not only communicate the positives of educational technology in the classroom but address some of parent’s concerns about any issues as well. At a tech night, teachers also have the chance to share their own personal philosophies concerning technology, too, which provides a great opportunity for teachers to explain why they teach in a certain way. And, of course, discussions at a family tech night are the perfect opportunity to talk about the various technologies used in the classroom, including their benefits, potential, costs, and anything else.
Talking about EdTech expectations is another topic that should be addressed at a tech night. It will be important for parents to know whether or not homework assignments will consistently require the use of technology, for example. They’ll also be very curious about privacy and rightfully so. Some parents are very curious about this topic and often even suspicious of what their kids are accessing. It can be to a teacher’s advantage to be pre-emptive about this topic and openly offer information about how the tech tools used in their classroom have been specifically vetted for this exact purpose. Finally, educators can discuss how technology can lead to easier and more robust teacher-parent communication. Using school-issued devices, teachers can easily send messages home to parents, who can respond quickly and conveniently thanks to various mobile applications. As long as they know that the tech is designed to improve experiences for everybody, hopefully they will start to come around.
More Ways to Positively Frame Technology
We’ll wrap up this week’s post with some more suggestions for how teachers at tech nights can connect with parents in a way that’s helpful for everybody involved. Since these have become more common events in K-12 communities, there are more examples of what to do and what to stay away from. This type of guidance is important for teachers to absorb rather than simply trying to hammer home their points to parents who might not be on the same page. When it comes to talking to parents about technology, it’s important to, of course, be honest, but also try to get them excited about the possibilities that EdTech has in store. Finding the proper balance between building excitement and providing information is one of the best ways to go about hosting a family tech night at the beginning of the school year (or really at any point in time)!
As a teacher, you probably know at least some of the ways that technology can engage, inspire, and foster new types of learning for today’s students. Parents might not be as informed or may not ever have seen a real case of this happening, however. Talking about the possibilities of using tech to solve real-world problems can go a long way with them. Also, educators can use their own stories and experiences to inspire parents to be more open-minded towards technology. Sharing some of the specific accomplishments students have made with EdTech or discussing how technology has helped them grasp a certain concept they were previously struggling with is something most parents wouldn’t mind hearing.
Technology can also be a powerful tool for meeting the needs of every student, something that parents might not realize. There is also data that backs up the benefits of technology in education—something that teachers should make an effort to communicate during a tech night. Since the skills that are considered to be essential will revolve largely around tech proficiency in the coming years, this is something they really need to know. Finally, one last thing that teachers can clarify at family tech nights is that technology is not just the future of learning and economic advances. It’s also the present. The more a school resembles the workplace, the more prepared students will be for the jobs they step into and equipping them with as much relevant experience as possible is why so many teachers rely on technology and promote its regular use in the classroom.
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