Why This Technology?

Why is Dunstan High School Hostel relying on the use of information technology to communicate with parents in a major emergency?

Initially parents may ask why such a heavy emphasis is placed on new information technology channels for communicating with parents in the event of an emergency.  Here are some of the reasons why we have set this system up:

1. One of the most challenging tasks for hostels in a major emergency is managing our student welfare activities, alongside our need to plan an effective response and communicate these plans to parents.  The use of technology streamlines this later process ensuring as much accurate information as possible is disseminated to parents as quickly as possible, so that they can plan for their response to the situation.  In short; we can communicate exactly the situation to as many people as possible at the push of one button. In fact, one e-mail to parents will not only be sent to all parents email address, but also to this e-blog, and from here to our twitter feed.  The same is also true with text messages.
2. If the power supply is disrupted in an emergency the hostel has provision to utilise battery power to run devices which will enable us to complete our planning and contact parents using any communication network available.  The window for communication of accurate information to parents may be small.  This will often be via the mobile phone network which usually has back-up battery power for up to 24 hours but is often heavily overloaded.
3. When disaster strikes, parents may not be at home or have access to their own normal channels of communication.  Mobile, technology based communication channels may operate when other channels are not and short, written messages maybe the most efficient use of available resources.
4. While parents may not normally utilise these channels of communication in everyday life, a little bit of forward planning will assist in the case that such communication is needed.
5. All of the information communication  technology tools we offer simply provide another tool in our "response toolbelt". We know that they may not be available in the event of an emergency. However, we are also very conscious that if they are available, they will all be more effective if parents are aware of them, and know how to use them, before they are needed. 

Why Use E-Blog - Not Just Hostelive?

• Hostelive is published via the internet by a piece of software on a computer.  The computer may not be available during an emergency.  The E-blog site is hosted in the "cloud" and postings can be made directly by email, text (via twitter feed), by mobile internet as well as by traditional means. 
• The E-Blog site is hosted on Blogger by Google.  It servers are offshore,  and different to servers for the Dunstan High School and Hostellive Sites.  It is another way of ensuring all of our eggs are not in one basket.