Over the summer， parents of high school German students in
Ithaca， N.Y. got to be part of a class trip to Europe， through
their home computers.The class brought a digital camera and laptop
with them to Germany and docu-mented their visit on their web
page. Harry Ash， father of 16-year-old traveler Brian， found it
reassuring to see his sons smiling face from half a world
away.Before their kids left， parents checked the site for
scheduling information， a list of activities and advice on
cultural differences.
When its designed well， a district， school or classroom
website can change the relationship between the parent and the
school， says Cynthia Lapi-er， Ithacas director of information and
instructional technology. "The more you can involve parents in
school， the better. " Lapier says. "The technology gives us
another way to reach them， especially parents of secondary school
students， who tend to be less involved. "
Ithaca high school physics teacher Steve Wirt gets E-mail
from parents regularly， some from moms and dads he believes might
otherwise not pick up the phone with a concern. Using software
called Blackboard CourseInfo， Wirt conducts online chats with his
students often reviewing for a quiz or discussing homework
problems.
The way things are going， by the end of this year， many
parents may be fully converted--and in fact dependent upon their
schools technological capa-bilities. At a recently wired school
in Novi， Michigan， the school webmaster was just a few hours late
posting the lunch-menu calendar on the website. In that time， more
than a dozen parents called him by telephone to request the
in-formation. "A year ago， it never would have been there，" says
Carson. And now parents are finding its tough to get by without
it. P4
今年夏天，纽约州伊萨卡中学的德语学生家长都通过家里的电脑，参与
了学校组织的学生赴欧班级旅行。这个班级赴德国时带了一架数码相机和一
台笔记本电脑，将旅程拍下并编辑入他们的网页。16岁的布莱恩的父亲哈里
·阿什从半个地球外看到自己儿子的笑脸时感到放心多了。在孩子们出发前
，家长就已查看过网站上的日程安排信息、活动清单和有关文化差异的建议
。
伊萨卡中学信息和教学技术主管辛西娅·拉皮尔说，如果网站设计良好
，一个街区、一所学校或者一个班级的网站能够改变家长和学校的关系。她
说：“家长参与到学校中去越多，所取得的效果越好。技术给了我们另一种
方式去接近家长，特别是中学生的家长，因为他们都倾向于和学校少打交道
。”
伊萨卡中学物理老师斯蒂夫·沃特现在常常从家长那里收到电子邮件，
他认为有些家长所以发电子邮件而不是打电话可能是由于抓起电话筒时有些
顾虑。沃特使用一种被称为“黑板课程信息”的平台与他的学生进行网上对
话，常常就溅验进行讲评，或者讨论家庭作业中的问题。
事情如果这样进展下去，到今年年底，许多家长都将转而相信——事实
上是依赖于学校的技术能力。密歇根州诺维市的一所学校刚刚上网。这个学
校的网站管理师最近有一次由于仅仅迟了几个小时将学校午餐菜单安排表放
到网上，结果当时就有超过10名家长打电话给他，询问有关信息。卡尔森说
：“一年以前，这种信息是从不会在网上发布的。”但现在家长们发现，没
了网站他们都不知道怎么过了。P5
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