This morning I was searching for a session of the K-12 Online Conference that I would like to review for class and I found this session:http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=340 -Parental Engagement in the 21st Century – Leveraging web 2.0 tools to engage parents in non-traditional ways

This session discussed how parents are using the 1.0 Web instead of the 2.0 Web. The hosts discussed that parents of this era are using the internet for email and Google but do not understand the new tools out there. They didn’t grow up online like the children today are and no one has trained the parents on how to use the tools. Parents do not use the social networking like students do.

The session stated that children are spending more time outside of school writing (facebook, myspace, blogs) than they are in school…and I agree! However, no one is truly monitoring what these children are doing. Sure, we have filters at school, but that just encourages students to find ways around the filter. And because the parents don’t understand what their children are doing online, they often don’t pay attention to the online behavior.

I think it would be great if the community would hold free classes (or for a very reasonable cost) maybe 3 or 4 times a year to parents on Web 2.0 tools. Of course, the classes wouldn’t have to go into great detail, they just need to be shown what is out there and what their children may be participating in…good or bad. If schools and communities can collaborate with parents, I think we would certainly see an increase of parents trying the new web out!