Parental Involvement in Children's Education: Connecting Family and School by Using Telecommunication Technologies

Everyone seems to agree about the importance of parental involvement (PI) in children's education. Two-way communication between families and schools is essential both for schools (they gain better understanding of the child's needs and secure parental assistance) and for parents (being more informed about their child's progress at school promotes levels of PI that are even more beneficial for children's education and personality development). For a variety of reasons, however, many parents and teachers find themselves unable to timely contact each other when they find a need. This essay examines new telecommunication technologies, such as voice-messaging system, e-mail, Internet and web sites, and demonstrates their potential to support family-school connection. I argue that effective classroom, school and school district web sites have a positive impact not only on student learning, but also on PI, and envision the future of PI, and web site and other telecommunication technologies