Communication among the masses has been evolving for the better. From the old crank sirens now only seen in movies, technology has moved to emergency alert systems that are sent directly to phones. El Camino is still stuck in the past in the ways of communicating important school information.
With the quickly advancing age of technology, there are so many ways and platforms where people can distribute information to one another. Emails are sent, phones are ringing, and texts are received with loud buzzes. This barrage of information is fired at people all at once from all directions and it can be overwhelming.
At El Camino, it seems like this communication is falling behind and has been a problem.
Currently, the way of communication from our school has been through a variety of emails and phone calls directed towards the parents of students as well as a growing number of different school Instagram accounts.
The solution here is to create a Google Classroom ‘class’ for the entire school. This would allow for Google Classroom to be a one-stop-shop for all important information that students need to know about their individual classes as well as events or important information for the whole school, like the recent textbook pick-up day that some students—including members of this editorial board—did not hear about.
The old tactic of mass email to parents and social media has proven very ineffective on multiple occasions. The many Instagram accounts lead some to believe that they aren’t giving the most important information as soon as possible, which can make them unreliable. This is not mentioning the fact that not all students have an Instagram account.
Older and more independent students don’t rely on their parents to relay school-related information in emails to them.
There are plenty of students at EC who drive to and from school every day. This fact should be enough to put more trust in the students and relay information directly to them.
If EC staff are reaching out to possibly unreliable email addresses and phone numbers, how could one prove that the email or phone call had been received in the first place?
Google Classroom is a centralized hub that all teachers use as a starting point during distance learning due to the user-friendly system for both the student and the teacher. Google Classroom would also be a great controlled online stream from EC staff to communicate to the student population. To protect against unwanted or inappropriate comments from misbehaving students, teachers or staff members are able to change the settings to prevent students from commenting on the stream.
Using one application to update students on what’s happening would not require those students to look for a specific announcement through the chaos of never-ending emails.
The Eagle Eye Editorial Board:
Editor-in-Chief Jackson Ponder ’22
News Editor Mia Randall ’23
Staff Writer Nargis Afzali ’24
Staff Writer Yana Sergiyenko ’23
The Eagle Eye Newspaper 