The communication and collaboration benefits are not limited to within the classroom. Teachers are given the option to have parent accounts linked into their Seesaw classroom. When parents are linked into Seesaw, they receive notifications when their child adds something to his or her Seesaw journal. Parents can then view, comment, and like their child’s work. Up to ten family members can connect to each student account, so parents can even invite grandparents, other family members, or friends to access their child’s portfolio as well. For privacy, parent/family accounts can only view their student’s work and cannot see the class feed.
Brand new to Seesaw 5.0, as of July 2017, is the Inbox feature. The Inbox feature provides teachers with a way to message either students or families, as a group or to privately message a family member. This provides a way for teachers to send digital newsletters or reminders without these items becoming a permanent part of the students’ journals. Families can also send messages privately back to the teacher, but they can only reply; they cannot start new messages in Seesaw.
Conclusion
In getting started with Seesaw, the best way to get a feel for it was just to create an account and start trying it out. When you’re ready to learn even more about what Seesaw has to offer or if you encounter challenges along the way, there is an extensive help center available, as well as a helpful and active Facebook community, Seesaw Teachers. I encourage you to take the leap and see what benefits you discover when you integrate Seesaw into your own classroom.
Figure 5: The Inbox options in Seesaw
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