Communication is Key

Communication is a necessity in life especially in the 21st century.  If you don't know how to communicate, chances are you aren't going to go very far.  The "old-school" communication: face-to-face/voice-to-voice has somewhat become a thing of the past.  Though, we all still obviously communicate those ways, technology has expanded a whole new world of different communication tools that you can use.  And fortunate for us, these tools are effective, efficient and extremely convenient.  A blog like this, for example, can be viewed by all my future student and their parents as well as peer educators, principals, and my team.  I can communicate what goes on in our classroom, what our objectives are for the month, what fun things we are working on, it can include special assignments, and many other things.  Another technological tool we can use to communicate in the classroom is email.  Email is a free, fast, and simple way to communicate.  Most everyone has email and during orientation of the classroom or "back-to-school" nights, you can obtain email addresses from parents to be able to send them communicative emails.  In the case that there is anyone that doesn't have email, I would make a hard copy and send home with the students or mail to their home.  Some other forms of communication described in our textbook are audio recording and videoconferencing. You can utilize these tools on your computer to either do a sound recording or a live video conference to be able to communicate with the many people teacher's are expected to communicate with.  Social networking is also a huge tool for communication in the 21st century. This allows you to interact and communicate with people all over the world. Students and teacher's alike can use social networking to communicate via pictures and status updates. You can provide feedback in a time-efficient manner. Now, not only can the teacher's incorporate all of the above tools into their means of communication but they can teach their students to utilize them as well. Teaching them how to use these correctly and accurately will enable them to use good, effective communication throughout their school years and potentially in their future careers.  It's never too early to start teaching about technology!  :)  In closing, I want to include a quote I love from the technologically advanced Bill Gates, "I am a great believer that any tool that enhances communication has profound effects in terms of how people can learn from each other, and how they can achieve the kind of freedoms that they're interested in!"