Sending children off on a field trip can be scary for parents. Whether it is the first time their children takes the bus off campus to visit the local museum or they are sending their middle school student on a two-week trip abroad to Europe, the parents want to know their children are safe.
With today’s generation of parents, there is also a sense of FOMO – fear of missing out, and a desire to be part of the student experience. Keeping everyone connected requires a whole new level of effort.
Communication – email, texts, and calls – tends to increase between teachers and the school during field trips. Sharing updates with parents has been shown to reduce this.
One way to do this is to share photos and short videos throughout the field trip. Simple things like sitting on the bus, walking into the museum, at the airport, and a group shot of smiling faces help parents relax.
Start by creating a location to upload the photos. For a single-day field trip, you might create a single Google or Dropbox folder. For longer field trips, create multiple containers which could be by day, by event, or by some other organization decided before the trip. Remember to share the location of the photos with parents ahead of the trip. Alternatively, Vidigami helps you crowdsource event photos in 1-click.
For day field trips, assign a chaperone to be the “photographer.” (Don’t also assign this person to supervise students. They should be free to wander between all student groups.) Ensure they can easily upload their photos (and videos) to the location shared with parents.
For older students, especially on overnight trips, select student photographers. Assigned students should be asked to take, upload, and annotate photos for the day(s) / event(s) they are assigned.
Vidigami makes this very easy. A Page can be set up for the field trip, with albums added as needed. The Page can be shared with the entire school community or be more limited such as the parents of the students on the trip.
No matter how you share, photos and videos will help parents know their children are safe and happy when off-campus.
Check out this article to increase photo engagement in your fundraiser.