This is obviously an important part of education and it is mandatory as an Alberta teacher as laid out by the Alberta teaching KSAs. I think that this is very important in terms of developing positive relationships. Communication with parents has gotten easier in the past few years with the development of technology. This idea is supported in a paper from the New Media Consortium called Social Networking, The "Third Place," and The Evolution of Communication. The paper identifies the internet as the "third place" to meet (with at home and work being the other two places). This is type of communication has evolved parent-teacher communication rapidly.
I think that frequent communication with parents is important so that they are always aware of what their student is doing in school or where they should be at. Not all students are keen at telling their parents what they learned in class that day and this communication can be of interest to the parent. I also think that with frequent communication with parents you can minimize any dispute or discrepancies that might arise from mis-information or misunderstanding. For example, a student may tell their parent a very biased story and with information from a teacher on the events of a day can provide a parent with an insight into to classroom.
In my eyes there are 2 types of communication. There is a very informal communication through a bulletin type posting. This could be done through the use of Twitter or Remind101 where the teacher sends out a very general posting about upcoming events or news items that are relevant to the class. This could be accessed by every parent or student and tends to be one sided (aka the teacher posts some information and it wouldn't require a response). The other communication would be more formal and in general it would be directed to a specific parent/ guardian about the status of their student. This would either be through a phone call, email, or meeting where the teacher and the guardian would have a conversation. I think that this is an important aspect of parent communication. It can give the teacher some feedback on other circumstances that a student might be enduring. With that said, I do still value face-time and I think that if there is a serious issue to discuss, that it should be done in person and that technology shouldn't be used as a replacement to face-to-face interaction, but rather should be used for more frequent updates.
Although I do see the validity in giving students/ parents your phone number to enable them to contact you in an efficient manner, I do have some reservations about this. Being a young teacher teaching high school, I would be a little wary of receiving text messages that would be unprofessional. Although I know that I would handle myself in a professional way, I am not 100% certain that students would. But since so many young people, myself included, carry their cellphones around with them regularly, texting seems to be an efficient way to get ahold of people or student to remind them of upcoming activities. In my PSIII, I used Remind101. I really liked this app/ website to communicate to my students and their parents/ guardians. You can send a text out to them without them being able to reply AND their phone numbers remained anonymous from the teacher to maintain their safety! I was able to communicate with my students on a daily/ weekly basis and they really enjoyed hearing from me as well. This is a tool that I intend on using in my future classes and I also hope to extend it more to the parents as well to ensure that they are more involved in the classroom as well.
I am also I Twitter supporter! I think that if you were to create a class specific Twitter handle or hashtag that parents could follow, I think that it would be very effective to relay information. The one downside to this, is that not all people are efficient at using Twitter. I still intend on posting information on a Twitter feed, but I would ensure that this wasn't my only means of communication. I also like the fact that Twitter has the ability for a parent to respond, but it would generally be in a more public setting encouraging that respect is upheld. Other new ways to communicate with parents are outlined in the blog post: 12 Online Tools For Effective Teacher to Student and Parent Communication.
I would just like to reiterate the fact that face-to-face contact is irreplaceable. Although technology has provided us the opportunity to communicate on a more frequent basis, it doesn't have the same personability as meeting a with a person and discussing any issues or successes of a student.
Jones, R., & Sanchez Terrel, S. (2013). 12 online tools for effective teacher to student and parent communication [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://shellyterrell.com/2013/11/22/12-online-tools-for-effective-teacher-to-student-and-parent-communication/