New Technologies

Last year the requirement for the online grading system (that was separate from the Moodle system where online class information is posted) to be in effect for all classes and all grades was fully enforced. This required parents and students to be responsible for checking the grading system on aregular basis for grades and notes. As part of the orientation process, we went over this process with parents and students as needed. Parents were resistent to the online process. Many parents felt overwhelmed and frustrated with the process. Parents would be less than curtious towards the training process. If parents experienced difficulties, they would claim the program was not functioning properly or that teachers were not entering inforamtion correctly so they could find it. Since the individuals were a mixture of parents of my students and parents of students who I did not have in my classes, it could be difficult to address all their questions when it pertained to a subject specific grade issue or posting. When considering Keller’s ARCS, the first issue – attention- it would have been better to talk with the parents about what their expectations were for communication concenring progress. Next – relevance – it would be important to make sure the parents understand the reason why the requirement for utilizing this type of technology was enacted as well as how the access would be benficial to them as part of monitoring their students progress. This would include the ability to communicate with the teacher through the system. The third step – confidence- it would be important to provide a longer period of time to work with the parents so parents did not feel rushed in the training process. This would have allowed the parents to individually sign into each of their students classes so they were able to see the process. In addition, the training should have been conducted with all teachers in the same training session so each teacher could address issues that were specifically associated with their classes. Finally – satisfaction – it would be benficial to have an adidtional session set up relatively close to the previous session to allow parents who are still having difficulty the opportunity to come back after trying this on their own for a referesher meeting.