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School App

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  • 27-02-2014 5:31pm
    #1
    implausible
    Registered Users Posts: 3,937 ✭✭✭


    In my school we're investigating using an app to aid communication between school and parents. Ideally, we'd love to go as close to paperless as possible while improving communication and parental engagement.

    Our ETB is using gmail and promoting the use of Google apps in class. We use calendar and email, I use Drive to create, share and comment on work for students and am in the middle of setting up a Google site for access to my notes, clips etc (just waiting on student emails to be finalised.) Recently, I have seen this app and it looks good. It provides info on the school to parents, alerts them to new events and there's a section where parents can view homework for a particular class, which is done by teachers emailing the work afaik. It integrates with the school website, which is something that definitely needs work :eek:.

    We have a guy coming in next week to demo this app and it's another option, though more expensive, charging per student.

    Edmodo and Moodle also seem to be very popular in Irish schools and I need to investigate these too. Are there mobile app options for these available or are they solely based on logging onto an a/c in a browser? Are they suited for communication with parents?

    I would love to hear from teachers in schools using any of these systems: the advantages; the pitfalls; usability; teacher, student and parent engagement and above all, if it improves life for the teacher and student.

    (I should add that we use eportal too and it's a b*lls, so integration with this would be needed.)

    I'm sure I've left out information and am not coming across as very tech savvy, but I'd appreciate any feedback from fellow boardsies.
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    #2
    whiteandlight
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,359 ✭✭✭whiteandlight


    I don't know of any system that interacts with eportal, that piece of ******. :) I might dislike it a little.....

    I'm using edmodo (along with about a quarter of the staff so far) and we are also rolling out google mail and apps to our classes with the ipads (first years only at the mo). I love edmodo, it is an absolutely brilliant tool and completely free. You can also set up a district account so you can monitor traffic on the account. They are still expanding the district platform however and it is still pretty basic. You can communicate with teachers but cannot send out a bulk message. We are getting around that next year by setting up all first year account centrally into one "class group" which is really the school admin. This will allow us to contact all students/parents centrally, change all student passwords on request and teachers can set up their own class groups for themselves after the students have set up the first class group. There is a mobile app (cross platform) for edmodo available for free.

    I've not seen the ischool app in use though it looks professional. The big difference that I see there is that it can take payments and absentee information. Edmodo is more of a communication tool and works kinda like a facebook page. PM me if you want to add yourself to one of my classgroups on edmodo and see what it looks like


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    #3
    GarIT
    Registered Users Posts: 8,671 ✭✭✭GarIT


    Use email, texts or a website, there is nothing else that will work for all the parents. You would need to develop an app for every platform to include everybody and there's loads.


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    #4
    implausible
    Registered Users Posts: 3,937 ✭✭✭implausible


    Musicmental85 wrote: »
    I don't know of any system that interacts with eportal, that piece of ******. :) I might dislike it a little.....

    eportal is a pain in the ass - awkward, unreliable, doesn't work in all browsers and pretty much useless for anything other than taking the roll. Even at that, I can't even do something as simple (imo) as checking a student's attendance history for my class. I'd love if the attendance roll could be kept in some kind of a teacher's e-organiser as well as being transmitted to the office. But that's another topic...

    I've been messing around with the app, you can download various schools' ones and have a good nose around them without signing up. It looks good. I don't know if the payments option would be one for us, it's hard enough to get any money out of some of ours!

    Ta for the info on Edmodo, will pm you now.


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    #5
    GarIT
    Registered Users Posts: 8,671 ✭✭✭GarIT


    implausible wrote: »
    as checking a student's attendance history for my class. I'd love if the attendance roll could be kept in some kind of a teacher's e-organiser as well as being transmitted to the office. But that's another topic...

    It would be relatively easy to do that on a website, give each teacher a login for the roll call, notes about the student, grades etc. It would just be a simple database job. Then set it up that all parents have a login and can see but not edit the data on their child.


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    #6
    implausible
    Registered Users Posts: 3,937 ✭✭✭implausible


    GarIT wrote: »
    Use email, texts or a website, there is nothing else that will work for all the parents. You would need to develop an app for every platform to include everybody and there's loads.

    That first app works on IOS and Android, which would cover the majority I'd imagine.

    Our website is clunky, out of date and not really used by anyone, emails are often not checked. Texting has proved very effective for reminders etc, but they are usually a back up to very expensive snail mail. I suppose the thinking is that parents will be likely to engage with notifications from an app. I am under no illusions that something like this will replace everything else, instantly save a fortune and result in 100% engaged parents, but I also think that we need to move with the times. It's not so long ago that the idea of sending out texts would have been problematic.

    We're really trying to do two things in my school - integrate Google apps into our teaching to help in actual instruction and organising our departments (a recommendation from a recent inspection was to get dept paperwork into the cloud) and improve communication with parents. If we could do both with some user-friendly technology, that'd be the job!


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    #7
    implausible
    Registered Users Posts: 3,937 ✭✭✭implausible


    GarIT wrote: »
    It would be relatively easy to do that on a website, give each teacher a login for the roll call, notes about the student, grades etc. It would just be a simple database job. Then set it up that all parents have a login and can see but not edit the data on their child.

    Hmmm, how easy is "relatively easy"? Is this being done in Irish schools?

    In that complaint, I was only referring to my own records, not necessarily for parents. At present, staff submit class rolls and exam results and comments for a term report on eportal. However, you still have to keep your own class attendance, comments, seating plan, day-to-day record and other results elsewhere, mostly on paper.


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    #8
    GarIT
    Registered Users Posts: 8,671 ✭✭✭GarIT


    implausible wrote: »
    That first app works on IOS and Android, which would cover the majority I'd imagine.

    Our website is clunky, out of date and not really used by anyone, emails are often not checked. Texting has proved very effective for reminders etc, but they are usually a back up to very expensive snail mail. I suppose the thinking is that parents will be likely to engage with notifications from an app. I am under no illusions that something like this will replace everything else, instantly save a fortune and result in 100% engaged parents, but I also think that we need to move with the times. It's not so long ago that the idea of sending out texts would have been problematic.

    We're really trying to do two things in my school - integrate Google apps into our teaching to help in actual instruction and organising our departments (a recommendation from a recent inspection was to get dept paperwork into the cloud) and improve communication with parents. If we could do both with some user-friendly technology, that'd be the job!

    You'd be surprised about how many people it covers, working off rough figures the amount of parents with IOS or Android phones that are actually connected to the internet would be less than 50%. Where a website would cover 95%+

    You website might be old and clunky but starting from scratch with a new website would be much easier than developing an app. If you think about it you would have to A) train teachers to update data on the server or B) provide a web interface for the teachers and at that point you might as well develop the full website.

    Emails probably wouldn't be checked often by some parents but you could always ask the parents about how they would like to be contacted, if the school started sending monthly email updates with attendance and test results to the parents they would soon be checked much more often. When parents know all test results and if homework was not done etc is posted online they will be checking it much more often, it is also very handy to give stats on how the kids compare to the class average.

    An app won't see as much engagement as texts would. An app isn't exactly moving with the times, it might seem like the latest trend but there are better solutions for both the school and the parents. An app would certainly cost much more than it saves.

    A website as a frontend for a database on all the students is really the way to go, add emails and texts to that and it would be the way to go. Maybe even ask the parents what form of communication they would like, let them know that everything is available and that they can opt into email updates for free, text updates for €5 per year and paper updates for €50 per year.

    I develop software, apps, databases and websites. IMO an app will cause more trouble and cost more than it is worth.


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    #9
    GarIT
    Registered Users Posts: 8,671 ✭✭✭GarIT


    implausible wrote: »
    Hmmm, how easy is "relatively easy"? Is this being done in Irish schools?

    In that complaint, I was only referring to my own records, not necessarily for parents. At present, staff submit class rolls and exam results and comments for a term report on eportal. However, you still have to keep your own class attendance, comments, seating plan, day-to-day record and other results elsewhere, mostly on paper.

    Relatively easy is at maybe half the effort an app would be. Setting up the database for what you need is going to take maybe an hours work, setting up the website is maybe a weeks work depending on how pretty you want it to be.

    I wasn't even thinking though that you could use pre made apps. If you can get one that suits your needs you would probably be better off.

    From the teachers point of view all the data could be imputed into something like an excel spread sheet, nothing complicated. Attendance is just tick the box for every student that is in, exam results are as easy typing as writing them down.


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    #10
    implausible
    Registered Users Posts: 3,937 ✭✭✭implausible


    GarIT wrote: »
    You'd be surprised about how many people it covers, working off rough figures the amount of parents with IOS or Android phones that are actually connected to the internet would be less than 50%. Where a website would cover 95%+

    You website might be old and clunky but starting from scratch with a new website would be much easier than developing an app. If you think about it you would have to A) train teachers to update data on the server or B) provide a web interface for the teachers and at that point you might as well develop the full website.

    I develop software, apps, databases and websites. IMO an app will cause more trouble and cost more than it is worth.

    The website's the thing...

    The idea of charging by method of communication and skewing it is a clever one, though how that would be received in our DEIS school could be an interesting discussion:eek:.

    One of the main selling points of the app is that you pay €250 for set up and €49 per month thereafter. The developer puts it together for you afaik and I'm sure Muggins here would have to learn to update it as she'll probably be the one doing it.

    What you're saying about the website is food for thought though and makes sense. We do need to start with it and try to use it more for communication with parents, before looking at other options.


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    #11
    spurious
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 27,115 CMod ✭✭✭✭spurious


    Always keep Data Protection 'things' in mind.


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    #12
    implausible
    Registered Users Posts: 3,937 ✭✭✭implausible


    spurious wrote: »
    Always keep Data Protection 'things' in mind.

    Yeah, that's another consideration. There is a still a lot of stuff in schools that has to be kept on paper in a secure area. Any online system is not going to replace that.


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    #13
    GarIT
    Registered Users Posts: 8,671 ✭✭✭GarIT


    implausible wrote: »
    The website's the thing...

    The idea of charging by method of communication and skewing it is a clever one, though how that would be received in our DEIS school could be an interesting discussion:eek:.

    One of the main selling points of the app is that you pay €250 for set up and €49 per month thereafter. The developer puts it together for you afaik and I'm sure Muggins here would have to learn to update it as she'll probably be the one doing it.

    What you're saying about the website is food for thought though and makes sense. We do need to start with it and try to use it more for communication with parents, before looking at other options.

    I don't know how the charge would be taken either, All the reasoning you have to give is sending letters costs the school x amount in copying and postage + admin time. Texts cost to send and emails are free.

    A simple system could be set up where all teachers get a login to the back end of the website, each teacher is presented with a grid, student's names down the left, and column labels across the top i.e. the teacher can select that the data being imputed is attendance, an exam result or a note about the student. If they select attendance, they just mark any absent student with an x, for results they just put an number across the students name the same as they would on paper, and for a note they just write whatever they like. Then the system will auto email and/or text parents of students that are absent, send them all the results and send them any notes. The parents can also log in and see all the data for their child for the year.

    They had a similar system in my school years ago but they way they worked it was that the teachers filled everything in on paper and the school had somebody employed to enter the data. Usually by 11, all the parents would get a text if their child wasn't in at 9. Now though I'm sure that nearly every teacher would have easy access to a computer and the system would be no more difficult than logging onto Facebook and entering data into a spreadsheet.

    I'm not sure at all about costs of the system, it depends on how good it needs to be, if you go for functionality you should be able to get it done for around or under 1k, and then the running costs are only around €100 per year for hosting and the site name. After a year you would probably break even on your app.


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    #14
    GarIT
    Registered Users Posts: 8,671 ✭✭✭GarIT


    spurious wrote: »
    Always keep Data Protection 'things' in mind.
    implausible wrote: »
    Yeah, that's another consideration. There is a still a lot of stuff in schools that has to be kept on paper in a secure area. Any online system is not going to replace that.

    Obviously that is an important consideration but I wouldn't be too worried about it. You can make only certain info available to each parent. Every website can be hacked but it would require a professional team of people to try to get through the security. It would be something to bring up with the developer if you have any worries.


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    #15
    winsletray
    Registered Users Posts: 4 ✭winsletray


    Managing classroom and school is now days is great and becomes easy with the rise of school apps totally change the education level, making the smart school and classroom, helping students parents as well as teachers to save time and effort. I just searched the mylyapp for schools and colleges which is free to use all over the world.

    The good point I noticed from this information is technology is required by everyone, and schools are not left behind, as moving on the same track as what the universities are doing with the help of technology.


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