Technology, so far, hasn’t healed the disconnect between schools and communities, but that could be because we’re selling it short for what it can do—which might start with not seeing its potential fully. Today, popular uses are sharing grades, missing work, test dates, snow days, and basic school announcements. This isn’t nearly good enough.
Terry Heick discusses "How To Connect Schools And Communities Using Technology", including:
Solicit mentoring relationships
Connecting students to the artists, architects, engineers, makers, writers, farmers, cooks, and other “roles” for the purpose of mentoring and apprenticeship is one way to begin to repair the disconnect between schools and communities.
Connect with community leaders
This one is closely related to the idea of “mentoring” in the sense that it connects students with people outside of the classroom from their community. But rather than for the purpose of mentoring, it could be less involved—topical but authentic communication between those leading the community, and those living in it, and social media is the perfect way to make it happen.
