This year, our school, Rangiora High School bought into the Hapara product Teacher Dashboard - I was one of those who trialled this last year with two English classes - and I was won over by the ease by which I could access student work.It interfaces with Google Drive and other GAFE. More importantly it fishtailed beautifully with senior writing portfolios - which was great. I could see what they were working on and when they are working on it. I could even check their work while I was on a break at a PL conference - that caused some consternation and amusement.
This year my Yr 12 English class are currently working on their Connections Reports and/or Writing Portfolios. I feel a little guilty that I am able to talk to them about their writing while I am looking at their pieces using the Drive app on my iPhone - I seem to be constantly explaining to other teachers (and students) who come into the library, where we are working, that I am not just pfaffing around on my phone!! My students find this quite amusing!
The down side - it costs!
So I needless to say, I am looking forward to investigating the launch of Google Classroom in August. I've signed up for the trial, but have just read that due to demand trials will be offered to selected requestees - here's hoping!
I've trialed Classroom for the past two weeks and wasn't impressed. At this stage I feel Google has a long way to go to rival Happara's teacher dashboard.
ReplyDeleteThanks Barbara - what in particular?
ReplyDeleteDashboard is so good -but very costly for us - we have nearly 1800 students.