Getting to where others cannot reach

I'm presently working on a project concerning Parental Engagement. Certainly Becta and organisations such as Naace are working hard to see through the issues and produce some good advice and support for schools.

Concerning the image above, I have no political axe to grind, but the photograph from wired.com exemplifies the problem. Rather than just mourning the inability to reach out to some who are missing out, 'the hard-to-reach', 'the NEETS', those who are totally demoralised, those serving some form of custodial sentence etc etc, I feel that we should be looking at more constructive ways to assist young learners.

The forthcoming book by Mal Lee and Glenn Finger, 'Developing a Networked School Community' (Published by ACER Press in April) is a major contribution to this debate, analysing the worldwide situation. Of course, as Australians, their history of 'The School of the Air' and approaches to distance learning and support of the Home-School Nexus stand them in an excellent situation to pull together deep thinking and case studies from around the world.

This, yet again, is a place where the e-Portfolio concept and eFolio in particular can address Parental Engagement in ways that are unique to the personal ownership of learning and the contribution that families can make to everyone's learning.