School communication channels: Why should we go digital?

Just like any other business, it’s obvious that effective communication is at the core of successful school operations. The management, teachers, and parents need to share and exchange a lot of information. However, traditional school communication channels are now obsolete. Schools need to go digital for several reasons.

What are traditional & modern school communication channels?

In the context of school management, communication refers to all activities that help share information from school to home, school to employees, and vice versa. Constantly keeping in touch is crucial for the management board to establish and maintain a solid, positive, good family–school–teacher relationship.

School communication channels are the means to convey and receive messages. Traditional methods include face-to-face meetings, parent-teacher in-person conferences, phone calls, or paper letters. And modern communication, which takes advantage of technology, is through websites, mobile app, emails, or social networking sites.

In today’s world, especially post Covid-19, it is now a must for schools to adopt digital solutions into their communication.

Why should we go digital?

Higher effectiveness and flexibility

Face-to-face meetings are still a good way to communicate. People can express ideas both verbally and non-verbally. However, this consumes too much time and effort. There are many cases when parents can not go to school due to their business trips. During Covid-19 when schools have to close, in-person discussions are also impossible. Another popular means of communication, phone calls, can bridge the geographical gaps. Yet it is too costly for schools to make hundreds of phone calls, each of which lasts around 15-30 minutes.

Moving online can solve all those problems. Communication is seamless regardless of where you are. As it is online, the cost is nearly zero, no matter how long the conversation might go on. As parents and teachers don’t have to travel to school for a discussion, they can also save time. In general, digital solutions are way more effective and flexible, compared to traditional ones.

All stakeholders can benefit from digital solution

Mobile app and web portal, which are separately designed for teachers, parents, and school admins, bring various prominent benefits:

• For teachers: They can schedule a meeting with parents within the app. They can also chat with parents of different students all in one place! The messages are instant and direct, so they can send updates whenever needed.   
• For parents: Parents are enabled to book meetings with assigned teachers or school admins. The scheduling service is 24/7 available, so their requests can be sent and handled in an easy and fast way. Through Helen mobile app, parents are immediately notified of any important events or updates from schools, making sure that there is no communication blocker along the way.
• For school admins: Rather than composing long emails or preparing a huge number of handwritten letters, school admins are now able to create and send annoucements easier on a mobile app. Review, recommendation, and customization are available to ensure accurate and personal messages. In general, school admins can be more effective and flexible in the way they communicate to stakeholders. 

Digital school communication channels ensure transparency

Transparency is getting more and more important in today’s communication. Schools should also take this into consideration during their management process.

Regarding traditional communication protocols, the level of transparency is quite low. Information from a face-to-face parent-teacher discussion is usually not sufficiently recorded. There might also be a lack of evidence when schools notify parents of their children’s attendence or performance at school. The family is also not informed about the status of students on the bus to school, making them worried.

Transparent, or even real-time school communication channels will work. A mobile app for parents can help update regularly about students’ academic and extracurricular performance, as well as their class attendance and safety on the school bus. All notifications are automatic, saving time for the admins while still satisfying the customers.

In Helen, we provide a well-rounded digital solution for school management. All real-time data including attendance or bus status are integrated into Helen system. Staff, managers, and customers can all view the data on their own mobile devices. As the notification is automatic, schools need much less effort on communication.  

Greater customer and employee engagement

There is no doubt that the more efficient communication is, the more satisfied key stakeholders are.

Thanks to the modern communication method, parents will be happier. This is because they can stay updated about their children’s status at school as well as other important annoucements regardless of geographical barriers. Parental engagement is also greater, as they now can interact easily with teachers and school admins.

Employees will also be happier because they do not have to do the paperwork or other redundant work like marking attendance. They can concentrate more on their profession, leading to overall better performance.

To sum up, it is of great importance to digitize school communication channels. Do not hesitate to leave us a message if you are looking for a trustworthy and experienced supplier. Or you can learn more about Helen – Interactive School Solution at: https://helen.edu.vn/about/