More parents want SMS school reports

Text messaging isn't another teen pastime anymore. Schools in the U.S. use text messaging to alert students of any emergency situations. In Australia, SMS alerts are being sent to parents to combat truancy, and if parents in the UK get their way, progress reports will soon be popping up on their mobile's screen more regularly.

The BBC says busy parents want to keep tabs on their kids, and would love to get more school updates via text or email. A recent survey conducted by Becta, a government agency in the UK, found that 68 percent of the parents surveyed want schools to use technology to keep them updated of their child's progress more frequently. Only 15 percent of the 1,493 parents surveyed said they get progress reports via text or email at least once a month, while 85 percent were updated only four times a year.

The survey also indicates that three-quarter of those parents monitor their bank account online at least once a month, so it's not surprising to hear how they want to use technology to be more involved in their children's academic lives.

What I do find surprising is that some schools even have a text or email system that sends out progress reports at all. Schools are usually slow to adopt this type of technology, so hopefully these type of surveys will encourage more schools worldwide to get with the times and devise a way to keep parents updated on how their kids are doing in the classroom.