Realistic Expectations for Electronic Communications in Schools

by Dominguez,L.,Murphy,J.&vanderBergh,A. IED500 EndicottCollege

Introduction to the Problem: The rise of technology is blurring the boundaries between work and private life and the availability of instant communication invites a certain expectation. Parents, students and educators are finding it difficult to formally set any clear boundaries. This case study draws inspiration from recent literature as the authors seeks to set a series ofguidingquestionsrelatedtowhen,howandwhattouse tocommunicate. The rise of technology has presented us with many different technologies to communicate. Twitter, text, email, blogging and learning management system all have their advantages and disadvantages, further still, Caruso (2013) suggests that instant communication can even have aneffect on the traditional processes involving chain of command. As teachers develop their tools for communicationthereshouldbeaconversationaboutexpectations,discusshow,whatandwhen. Work life balance is important and Kanter outlines the dangers of overload but also suggests the connections among working, praying, and loving are ripe for reinvention. In reference to proactively prioritising our responsibilities, Ashkenas also says that in light of how many of us blend work time with personal time, perhaps this advice is overly simplistic unrealistic even (2012). Askensas goes on to describe how we should have worklife integration opposed to worklife balance. Roemer states the use technologytobalanceratherthanruleyourlife(2012,p.4),onething isclear,ashiftinexpectationisoccurringinsomecircles. Educators have an important role to play in modelling effective communication for our future

generations.Atthesametimetheymustdeterminethetheefficiencyandefficacyoftheirownpractises.

Background on the Case: The school in this case study is the Dong Bandy Academy in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. It is a suburban International school with about 1000 students. The student population is composed of students from alloverthe worldwhocomefromwealthyfamilies. Parentsvalueeducationandexpecta lot from the school in terms of technological advances. However,mostofthemarebusyworkinginthe citythatiswhytheyheavilyrelyonemailtocommunicatewithteachers. The school does not have a formal policy on teachers virtualpresence,sharingcoursesonline or parent communication. There are several teachers who maintain virtual classrooms suchasEdmodo and Moodle to communicate with the students andparents.However,someteachersonly useemailto communicatewiththeirstudentsandparents. The Case: Mr. Winston Derman is a Humanities teacher, teaching over 150studentsfromGrade68.A parent ofoneofhisstudents,Mrs.ReinaNedzweski,haslaidacomplaintwiththeschooladministration about Mr. Dermans communication practices. She has said that Mr. Derman does notrespondtoher electronic communication in a timely fashion. On several occasions she has asked questions about her sons progress and waited for an unreasonably long time foraresponsefromMr.Derman.Incontrast, Mr. Aubert Darosa, her sons Math teacher always responds to emails within 6 hours and regularly updateshisEdmodopagetowhichtheparentshaveaccess.

After further investigation it was established that Mrs. Nedzweskis definition of an unreasonablylong time for a response was12hours.Shesent Mr.Dermananemailaskingaquestionat9:00amandhad notreceivedananswerby9:00pmthatevening. The administration asked Mr. Derman about the issue and he responded that he hadover 100 unread emails in his inbox and that he simply did not havethetimetoanswerthemallduringtheschool day. He also said that he is a firmbelieverinworklifebalanceandthathedoesnotreadorrespondto email between 4:00 pm and 8:00 am. Mr. Derman says that he views responding to emails as an unnecessary burden and that parents should just make an appointment to see him if they have any concerns.

Guiding Questions: 1.IsNedzweskisexpectationofemailsbeingansweredwithin12hoursarealisticone? 2.HowshouldtheschoolrespondtoNedzweskisdemands? 3.Shouldtheschoolofferproperemailmanagementtrainingtoallteachers? 4.Couldthesituationberesolvedbycreatingnewschoolpoliciesonteachervirtualpresenceand parentcommunication?Ifso,whatpolicieswouldyoucreate?

References Ashkenas,R.(2012,October19).ForgetWorkLifeBalance:It'sTimeforWorkLifeBlend[Weblog post].RetrievedJune25,2013,from http://www.forbes.com/sites/ronashkenas/2012/10/19/forgetworklifebalanceitstimeforwor klifeblend/ CarusoJr.,N.(2013).NewRulesforCommunicatingWhenConnected24/7.SchoolAdministrator, 70(1),11 Kanter,R.M.(2010,December).Column:WorkPrayLove.HarvardBusinessReview:The Magazine.RetrievedJune25,2013,fromhttp://hbr.org/2010/12/columnworkpraylove/ar/1 Owens,D.M.(2013).OvercomeEmailOverload.HRMagazine,58(5),6162. SolvingEmailOverload.(n.d.).HampshereCollege.RetrievedJune25,2013,from http://www.hampshire.edu/news/12096.htm Roemer,K.(2012).BringingBalancetoOurLives.MontessoriLife,24(2),45.