CREATING A SPACE FOR COMMUNICATION
There is no doubt that a digital portfolio opens up the communication channels between the teacher, learner and parent (s)/guardian (s).
In this module, the learning goal is to investigate several methods to strengthen and enhance communication.
Read the article by clicking on the button. Reflect on the aspects mentioned in the article which will make your digital portfolio successful and enhance communication with your stakeholders.
A classroom/homework site effectively communicates important reminders and homework to your parent and student audiences. Google Sites is a great way for parents to glimpse into their child's daily school life without feeling like they are nagging or being too intrusive. The fluency of Google allows you to connect to other core applications with minimal clicks easily. Hence, it becomes a great platform to showcase student work or connect valuable resources for parent support.
Parents want to know and would love to check dates on the go whenever they need to. Do you know that saying "anywhere, any time"?
A great way to make this happen is to embed a calendar into your digital portfolio. It will keep parents up to date with all the important comings and goings of the classroom- saves time and energy on mundane and boring emails.
An example is the calendar that is included on the About page.
OPTION 1
If you have a Google classroom, there is automatically a calendar available for every Google classroom.
Select a calendar from the Insert options on the left-hand side bar panel.
Click on the calendar, and a shortcut bar will appear.
The square icon allows you / the user to open the calendar.
Settings/gear icon
Dustbin / delete
The View Mode is important to set, preferably the Week view.
OPTION 2
You can create a new calendar for your class/subject.
Go to Google Calendar.
On the left-hand side panel, scroll down until you find Other Calendars.
Click the plus sign.
Select Create new calendar.
An insert box will open.
Give a name to your calendar.
Add a description
Click create.
The calendar will appear in the list when you click the icon under the Insert tab.
NB! make sure your have set the visibility to public!
The calendar will automatically update.
One of the best features of Google is the integration between all the apps. We all know that school contact details are not up-to-date, and one way to ensure you can contact your parents is to collect their contact details. Another relationship-building idea is to create a Form for your learners to complete where you get to know them better. 🍏 Remember to state the conditions of the POPIA!
In your Google Drive Folder, create a Form.
Browse the Template gallery. There are templates for contact information.
Go to the page where you would like the form to appear and use the Insert panel on the right and choose Forms.
From the list of forms (your most recently edited form should appear first) choose the correct form.
🍏Remember you can embed documents, which update automatically!
You can review, compare, and restore changes made to sites in new Google Sites.
Important: To browse a site's version history, you need permission to edit the site.
On a computer, open Google Sites.
In the top right, click More Version History.
To find all one-day edits, go to the sidebar, and click Expand detailed versions.
Tip: To name a version, click More Rename. Then, enter a new name and click Save.
On a computer, open Google Sites.
In the top right, click More Version history.
In the right sidebar, click Expand detailed versions.
Choose an earlier version you want to restore.
At the top left, click Restore this site version Restore.
Tip: To return to the current version, go to the top left and click Back.
Restore a single page from an earlier version
You can restore a specific page that might've changed or been deleted from a revision without restoring the whole site to that revision.
On a computer, open Google Sites.
In the top right, click More Version History.
In the right sidebar, click Expand detailed versions.
Choose an earlier version you want to restore.
At the top left, click Restore this page version Restore page.
Tip: To return to the current version, go to the top left and click Back.
We looked at the announcement bar in Module 1. Hop over to Module 1 if you need to revise how to insert one.
A communication page is a way to build relationships with parents and learners and provide parents with more insight into the daily activities of the classroom.
Shoot over to Module Task 4.