School-Home Communications

ParentSquare Partners with MyVRSpot, Expands Video Messaging Options for Educators

• By Kristal Kuykendall
• 08/10/22

In response to requests from educators for more ways to send video messages to parents, ParentSquare this week announced a new partnership with video and digital media service MyVRSpot that will expand video messaging capabilities on ParentSquare’s school-home communications platform.

ParentSquare said in a news release that school and district leaders had requested more ways to add videos to better communicate with families, in a 2022 national survey the company conducted.

Now, educators using ParentSquare’s platform — from district office staff to classroom teachers — can seamlessly record and share video messages with families, and teachers can also create lessons using the built-in recorder tools in MyVRSpot and then add the videos to their ParentSquare posts, according to the news release.

Educators that participated in the initial pilot testing with ParentSquare and MyVRSpot offered positive feedback, ParentSquare noted.

“Video is such a powerful communications tool, and we can leverage that power in education using quality resources and partnerships such as the ParentSquare and MyVRSpot collaboration,” said Instructional Technology Coordinator Paul Whitaker of Englewood Schools in Colorado. “I have so many ideas on how we can use this enhanced resource to humanize our communications approach. With ParentSquare's vast accessibility features already increasing engagement and equity, the partnership with MyVRSpot will ensure an additional medium for school-home communications is available for users.”

MyVRSpot videos are ADA compliant, with three types of captioning services available for creating closed captioning files for videos, according to the news release. Live streaming designed specifically for classrooms is also available on MyVRSpot’s web-based platform. None of the MyVRSpot functions require any app download or installation for either educators or families, ParentSquare said.

ParentSquare will explain the MyVRSpot features and new video capabilities during a free webinar scheduled for 11 a.m. PT Aug. 25, the company said. Educators can register to attend at the webinar page on the ParentSquare website.

Schools already using ParentSquare can find more information about the new features by logging in to the ParentSquare platform.