Finding common ground is a difficult, yet essential, task of teacher, principal, and district leadership.

As the 2012 presidential election and the fiscal cliff battle indicates, political division is the new normal. Created to serve as common schools for the common good, public schools are often caught in the crosshairs of opposing factions.

Finding an increasingly elusive common ground is a difficult, yet essential, task of teacher, principal, and district leadership, however.

That’s why the notion of peer, student, and public engagement is gaining such currency, whether through professional learning communities, 21^st century learning strategies, voice polls, online surveys, or potluck suppers built around hot topics like safety, new curriculum initiatives, or looming budget cuts.

Technology tools and services are helping school leaders engage key audiences in new and important ways, from starting conversations with constituents via social media to participatory budget processes that seek to get more community voices to the decision-making table.

While free and inexpensive applications are plentiful online, pulling all these disparate tools together can be time-consuming. Plus, freebies and cheap applications don’t always work well on a district-wide basis, and they can threaten network security.

(Next page: How a web-based service called MindMixer can help)

When parents perceive a communication void, they will work to fill it, by creating their own mobile apps or alternative social media sites.

With as many as 49 percent of all U.S. adults using smart phones, according to Nielsen reports, it’s time to get smart about school communications as well.

Today’s on-the-go parents, teachers, and principals require fast, easy access to news and information. In most cases, this requires access to stripped-down mobile websites or special applications (apps) designed for smaller screens and sometimes sketchy wireless internet connections.

Smart-phone use is nearly ubiquitous among young American adults. According to Pew Research, two-thirds (66 percent) of young adults ages 18 to 29 own smart phones. This jumps to 68 percent for adults of any age with household incomes of $75,000 or more. At 59 percent, adults ages 30 to 49 don’t lag far behind these top groups in terms of smart phone ownership.

Unlike other technologies, America’s smart-phone obsession cuts across gender lines as well as racial and ethnic groups. Women are about as likely as men to own smart phones (45 percent versus 46 percent, respectively), while smart-phone ownership rates among blacks (47 percent) and Hispanics (49 percent) surpasses those of whites (42 percent).

Driven perhaps by widespread wireless access as well as personal finances, urban residents (48 percent), college graduates (50 percent), and those with some college (50 percent) are more likely to own smart phones.

A small, qualitative research study we conducted last spring in my district confirms these results. In-depth interviews with a diverse group of parents whose children attend high-wealth, middle-income, and low-wealth schools showed similar patterns.

See also:

How to engage parents online more effectively

Using QR codes for school communications

Ten tips for using social media in school communications

While we expected and did find technology gaps in terms of home computers and broadband internet access, smart-phone use was much more widespread among low-income families than anticipated.

For our low-income families, the smart phone served as their connection to the internet, making text messaging, social media networks, and mobile access to websites and online services even more important—factors we likely would have missed without the additional, local research.

At the other end of the spectrum, we learned that high-income families used their smart phones to stay connected via social networking sites they created and maintained to keep families informed, often without any principal awareness, input, or knowledge.

While all but one of these alternative sites were supportive of school administration and teachers, it’s sad that so many actively engaged parents felt their schools did not meet their communication needs.

Websites are slowly taking a backseat to text messaging and micro-blogging tools like Twitter for breaking news, emergency messaging, and sharing other urgent information, writes award-winning columnist Nora Carr in the June edition of eSchool News—and schools should be aware of this trend.

Because assumptions vary based on individual perceptions of the role of virtual schooling in K-12 education, school officials need to invest more time and effort communicating about these issues, not less.

With student enrollment increasing rapidly, virtual schooling is experiencing some growing pains. From high dropout rates to concerns about academic rigor, virtual schooling is generating a litany of complaints and unintended student consequences.

Recently, for example, high-flying students at a suburban high school in North Carolina were shocked to discover that their class ranks had dropped unexpectedly, just in time for many major college application deadlines—and scholarship opportunities.

The culprit? Students dually enrolled at the traditional school and in online classes offered through the state’s virtual high school earned enough credit to move from the top of the junior to the top of the senior class.

Some parents and teachers expressed concern that courses offered by the school were more rigorous than those offered by the state and shouldn’t be given the same weight in calculating GPA.

School board members worried that without some parameters, students might take more than their fair share of online classes, eating through finite budgets more quickly than anticipated and potentially limiting opportunities for other students in the second semester.

Meanwhile, as eSchool News reports here, Colorado legislators are considering new rules to ensure online education providers keep students enrolled, hire qualified teachers, spend public money wisely, and maintain reasonable student-teacher ratios. And earlier this year, shareholders filed a class-action lawsuit in Virginia against K12 Inc., the nation’s largest operator of virtual public schools. The lawsuit alleges that K12 engaged in improper and deceptive business practices.

For more advice on school communications from award-winning columnist Nora Carr, see:

How to engage parents online more effectively

Using QR codes for school communications

Five tips for digital communication in the new year

Interestingly, K12 reportedly has several lobbyists active in North Carolina, which lifted the cap on charter schools during the last legislative session. The State Board of Education recently approved a number of charter school proposals and has as many as 70 new applications in the pipeline.

Whether blended with more traditional instructional methods as a dual enrollment opportunity, or offered via an online-only school, virtual learning is here to stay. The key for school officials is to think through how to manage this transformative new opportunity wisely and well.

Having smart policies in place that articulate the school board’s position or philosophy about online learning and provide guidance to students, staff, and parents represents a good starting point.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has teamed up with North Carolina’s Guilford County Schools to make its digital content and interactive learning tools accessible at home as well as at school.

Parenting is the toughest and most important role most adults will ever have. Yet, far too many feel ill equipped to handle the job. Others are simply too busy making ends meet, or so overwhelmed by life that parenting simply takes a back seat to more pressing concerns.

As someone raised in a “survival of the fittest” family, with few rules, multiple crises, and modest expectations, I can relate to other parents who feel inept when confronted by the litany of things educators expect parents to know and do.

It’s as if teachers and other suspiciously together parents have a secret codebook that tells them how to handle every situation and explains educational mysteries. Surely all parents are not born knowing why it’s important to read to infants, even though they are clearly not interested in books—or that teenagers who seem to hate your very presence really covet more time with caring, competent adults.

Telling parents like me that we need to “support the educational process at home,” or that you want to “partner with me” in addressing school concerns about my beloved child, is like waving a red flag in front of a bull. I might not know what to do with my child, but I sure recognize condescension when I hear it.

To help parents feel more confident in interacting with school personnel, and to bridge the knowing-doing gap, organizations like GreatSchools Inc. and companies like Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) are teaming up with schools and districts to offer free, online learning opportunities for their families.

For more information about parent engagement, see:

Engaging Your Community with Effective Communication

GreatSchools (www.greatschools.org), a national nonprofit headquartered in San Francisco, is partnering with Miami Dade Public Schools, Hillsborough County, Fla., Public Schools, Denver Public Schools, and Los Angeles Unified School District, among others, in leveraging digital media for parents as part of its College Bound online learning program.

Easy to log onto and use, College Bound helps unpack the middle-class codebook for families, starting in kindergarten and continuing through fifth grade. The goal is to build parent knowledge and skills that foster greater student success.

Designed with low-income families in mind but suitable for all parents, the program combines short lessons with an online community and personalized coaching—all in English or Spanish.

Because creating and sharing QR codes takes little time and no money, experimenting with this technology is low-risk and sends positive messages about your ed-tech prowess.

Quick Response (QR) codes—those black-and-white squares that look like a cross between supermarket bar codes and postage stamps—have real potential for school communications.

Created by a Japanese corporation in 1994, QR codes act like print-based hyperlinks to websites and social media networks. The codes are gaining traction because they allow on-the-go consumers to access websites more quickly from their mobile phones.

Found in newspapers, magazines, local TV news broadcasts, business cards, billboards, brochures, t-shirts, consumer product packaging, and just about anything else that can be printed, QR codes work by encoding URLs, contact information, geography coordinates, photos, and other text—in any language.

Consumers access the codes via free QR reader applications available online. Cell-phone cameras serve as scanners.

Businesses are using QR codes to link consumers to store and restaurant locations, product promotions, contests, movie trailers, loyalty programs, and corporate websites.

See also:

Five tips for digital communication in the new year

Ten tips for using social media in school communications

QR codes welcoming freshmen to campus

In Japan, for example, restaurant patrons use the two-dimensional QR codes to check meal option calories, fat, salt intake, and other nutritional information.

While U.S. consumers remain wary of QR codes compared to their global counterparts, I suspect they will grow in popularity here.

In the meantime, school leaders and teachers can start experimenting with them now to connect with colleagues and parents.

It’s important to match social media sites to audience preferences and needs.

With a new year approaching, it’s a great opportunity to re-evaluate what’s working—and what’s not—in your classroom, school, or district communications program. Here are five tips to power better communications and community relations in 2012, plus some thoughts to ponder as we enter a new era in public school choice.

1. Start using QR (quick response) codes for lunch menus, schedule changes, parent-teacher conference reminders, professional development announcements, contact information, website addresses, and other simple communications. Growing in popularity, QR codes—those goofy-looking bar-code squares you’ve been seeing everywhere lately—can be created and read using free online applications and are perfect for today’s mobile generation.

The codes can be distributed via digital and broadcast media as well as fliers, newsletters, and other printed publications. Students, parents, and teachers can then use their camera phones to scan the code and get the content. Only download codes from reputable sources. In some cases, security hasn’t kept up with hackers’ ability to attach malicious code to unsuspecting consumers.

2. Free up social media for student and teacher use, and for parent communications. Now that the FCC has lifted restrictions on social media use tied to eRate dollars, bureaucratic excuses are waning for blocking today’s fastest growing communication form. It’s time to shift from saying no to teaching stakeholders how to use social media wisely, well, and appropriately for learning and communication in school, at home, and on the go.

Students and employees need better guidance and training, however. Otherwise, social media missteps—like the recent tacky student tweet that resulted in a national free-speech debate and an apology from Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback for an “overreaction”—will continue unabated. Currently, according to Pew Research Center, more than half of U.S. adults use social media, primarily to connect or reconnect with family, friends, hobbies, and other items of personal interest, which could include their children’s schools or their own alma maters.

From a communications standpoint, it’s important to match social media sites to audience preferences and needs. The short bursts of information and mobile nature of Twitter, for example, is perfect for crisis communications. It’s faster than eMail and easier to use. Twitter also represents an effective way for public officials to stay in touch with constituents, despite some famous political meltdowns.

In August, the FCC clarified an earlier ruling that led to widespread blocking of social media networks by school districts receiving discounted internet access through federal e-Rate dollars.

Now that even the staid Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has loosened its tight rein on social media networks, it’s time for more educators to use these tools to improve classroom instruction and home-school communications.

In August, the FCC clarified an earlier ruling that led to widespread blocking of social media networks by school districts receiving discounted internet access through federal e-Rate dollars.

According to the ruling, “Although it is possible that certain individual Facebook or MySpace pages could potentially contain material harmful to minors, we do not find that these websites are per se ‘harmful to minors’ or fall into one of the categories that schools and libraries must block.”

By clarifying that schools can allow access to social media websites without violating the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and risk losing coveted e-Rate dollars for telecommunications, the FCC opened access to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other top social media sites for instructional use.

Before teachers start tweeting, though, school officials need to update their acceptable use policies to allow appropriate use of social media networks at school. Although districts have until July 2012 to meet the new federal mandate, teacher-driven social media gaffes—and firings—are on the rise.

Teachers aren’t the only ones who need guidance on using social media networks wisely and well. The same FCC ruling that loosened its tight rein on social media access also holds eRate-funded schools to higher certification standards.

Schools now must show with more specificity how they’re teaching students to behave appropriately online, whether that interaction occurs at home or at school. This includes cyber-bullying awareness, prevention, and intervention.

Allowing access to more social media networks, while still filtering out child pornography, obscene images, and “other material considered harmful to minors,” represents both a new opportunity and a challenge for teachers, principals, school boards, and school IT professionals. (The FCC defines a minor as anyone under the age of 17.)

A few tips can help educators tackle social media.

With social media networks ubiquitous in American life, it’s time to shift the debate from whether it’s a good idea for educators to use this new medium to how to use it wisely and well. Here are 10 tips to help get you started in social media for school communications.

1. Use social media networks as a research tool.

To quote a well-known advertising campaign, “Get out there.” Social media are easy to use, and most sites don’t charge a penny. If you do nothing else, find out what others are saying about you, your school(s), and your profession.

2. Do your homework first.

Find out if your school or district has any policies or guidelines regarding employee use of social media. Make sure everything you do online is in keeping with these and other pertinent policies and procedures, as well as state and federal laws or regulations governing school personnel and acceptable use of technology.

3. Start with one site and go from there.

LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, WordPress, TeacherTube: Pick one and start posting. Update at least once daily. How much time can typing 140 characters take?

4. Make it official.

Use social media outlets as an extension of your professional life and as an additional way to share important information with key audiences and stakeholder groups. Create an official page. Include your school and district logo, as well as links to your organization’s websites and official social media sites.

School leaders must learn how to navigate the new digital news ecosystem, Brookings researchers say.

According to a new study by the Brookings Institution, Americans want more news coverage of their public schools. But to improve the media’s coverage of public education, school leaders must learn how to navigate the new digital news ecosystem.

Not surprisingly, given the federal policy shift in favor of performance pay for teachers, Americans say they want more information from the media about teacher effectiveness and student achievement.

The media’s obsession with school crime and violence—currently at historic lows—also shows its power to shape public opinion about public education: According to the Brookings study, Americans want to see more news stories about school crime and violence, as well as more information about teaching and learning, finances, and school reform.

School leaders must learn how to navigate the new digital news ecosystem, Brookings researchers say. New technologies are lowering news production costs while expanding communication channels through the internet, social media, blogs, eReaders, texting, and smart phones.

“The new ecosystem has clear strengths, including immediacy, interactivity, and diversity,” according to Brookings’ executive summary. “But these virtues must be linked effectively to the delivery of in-depth and substantive reporting.”

While some might view television or internet news coverage and “in-depth, substantive reporting” as an oxymoron, getting better media coverage is possible. Here’s how:

Create an in-house news gathering operation.

To pitch good stories to reporters, school officials need a system for identifying potential news opportunities. Internal key communicator programs are a good place to start.

These programs recruit employee volunteers to serve as news reporters for their schools or departments, and then feed story ideas and other information to the principal or district communications office.