Mail Merge

Summary:

Mail Merge is a great tool for teachers to utilize when grades or educational growth is being reported to parents/guardians of children in your class, however this task can be an extremely time consuming effort if performed individually. Data is submitted from spread sheets that have been previously compiled to store grades and information for each student and act as the ‘database’. By saving the spread sheet it is stored as a document to be used at any convenient time and is linked into the Mail Merge to consolidate progress to the families of students. Coding documents is often viewed as a time consuming task much like that of encryption, which no one expects a teacher to understand and apply in their profession. The helpful step-by-step Mail Merge function however, makes the task easy to accomplish and a quick solution.

mail merge 1

fig 1. How to access

mail merge 2

fig 2. Attaching relevant data

mail merge 3

fig 3. Inserting short code

fig 4. Mail merge End document

Reflection:

The program Mail Merge is an extremely important digital tool that all teachers should have in their digital repertoire. It is an efficient addition to everyday software to maximize outcome reflection in classrooms. If we return to the textbook Teaching With ICT  (Howell. J, 2012) Mail Merge is testing TPACK. The TPACK model argues that effective integration of technology in teaching content or subjects, requires understanding the relationship between technology, pedagogy and content. A teacher competent in composing these relationships shows expertise different and broader than a disciplinary, technological or teaching pedagogy expert. (For more info on TPACK refer to pages 30 – 32 of textbook)

The use of Mail Merge helps to illustrate Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK). The knowledge on how to effectively combine pedagogy and content, about how to make a subject understandable to learners and ‘outsiders looking in’. It helps to illustrate to parents/guardians the growth their child is undergoing and makes what was before difficult to understand appear more approachable and remove any misconceptions and preconceptions of what a child brings and contributes to a classroom. According to the text Teaching with ICT:

Pedagogical knowledge (PK): ‘Includes generic knowledge about how students learn… methods of assessment and knowledge of different theories. Necessary but insufficient… also requires content knowledge’

Content knowledge (CK): ‘Defined as a command of a subject… includes content of concepts, theories and conceptual frameworks’

TPACK Model

fig. 5 TPACK Model

Mail Merge allows this to happen with ease and maximum efficiency. Performing a task, such as learning progress reports, without the use of Mail Merge’s coding would need to be performed individually and is extremely time consuming. It allows teachers to notify parents about their child’s progress and/or results on a more regular basis and encourages them to become more involved in their child’s learning/schooling career. Learning does not just happen in the class room but at home and in the real world. I believe it’s an extremely important skill teachers need to develop and utilize in their class and is easy enough to learn, even if you’re not a digital native or immigrant as it has step by step instructions on how to perform a Mail Merge.

References:

Australian Curriculum And Reporting Agency: ACARA (February 2013). Retrieved from: http://consultation.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Static/docs/Technologies/Draft%20Australian%20Curriculum%20Technologies%20-%20February%202013.pdf

Howell. J (2012), Teaching with ICT pp. 30-32