Positivity: Cyber Report Cards

Part of “Positivity” is reporting on neat developments that make everyday life a bit easier. Here’s one, and how it helps a soldier stay in touch:

Cyber report cards keep parents posted on grades
Halfway around the world, Mason parent Rod Zeigler pauses each day from his work with U.S. troops in Iraq to pull out his laptop and check on his kids’ school work.

At the click of a key, he can e-mail teachers in Mason, review his children’s grades, attendance, homework assignments and progress reports. Zeigler can also offer real-time homework suggestions to his children while simultaneously looking at the exact same page of schoolwork they are viewing.

“I can do everything here I did at home in Mason except meet face to face with their teachers,” Zeigler explains from Mosul, Iraq, where he works as a civilian morale and recreation coordinator for American troops.

More Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky school parents are using this newfound freedom of school Internet links, which provide a more comprehensive and detailed link between teacher and parents.

The Internet links offered by a growing number of area schools are also removing the reliance on students as messengers to relay vital information between schools and parents. No more forgotten homework assignments - you can pull up a fresh copy online - lost field-trip permission slips or having to wait until the end of the academic quarter to learn of your child’s plummeting grades. E-mail alerts can be flashed home instantly.

Playing phone tag with busy teachers is a thing of the past, as is the old excuse that “the dog ate my homework.”

“It’s revolutionary,” said Tina Blair, director of technology for Warren County’s Kings schools, which this week joined more than a dozen other Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky school systems already offering Internet access to parents.

“It’s great because it provides direct, up-to-date, timely communication between teachers and parents.”

And that information, which includes school calendar listings, Web resources for homework, progress reports, teacher comments and e-mail alerts is available 24 hours a day and from anywhere.

….. Piyush Swami, University of Cincinnati professor of teacher education, praised the new school computer links.

“It makes the best use of new technology, and it minimizes the secrecy that can surround grades and a student’s performance. Sometimes, especially with teenage students, you can barely get two words out of them when you ask them about school,” Swami said. “And from a teacher’s perception, it doesn’t take a lot more time to enter the student data.”

Although there are no national surveys on the growing popularity of school Internet links, which are free to parents, education experts agree they are becoming more prevalent.

Word of mouth is one reason, said Blair, who said Kings began exploring purchasing one of the privately produced Internet programs when parents heard nearby Mason school parents praising the system. Kings will spend about $10,000 annually for its new “Edline” Internet link, though costs for school districts can vary depending on the number of program options they buy. The programs are sold by private manufacturers and feature names such as “Progress Book,” “Progress Check,” “Parent Connect,” “STI” and “School One.”

Both parents and students catch on to the advantages quickly.

In 2003, Mason schools became one of the first in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky to offer an Internet link to parents. That year, Mason High School recorded 416, or 19 percent, of the school’s parents using the district’s “Edline” computer link and 1,219, or 56 percent, of students.

As of last week, 2,193, or 84 percent, of Mason High School parents had used the link so far this school year, and 2,517, or 99 percent, of students had.

Separate security codes are given to parents and students so siblings can’t spy on one another’s school work. While most students welcome the greater access and speedier link to schoolwork and information, not all are happy with the greater scrutiny, said Cindy Donnelly, Mason High School technology specialist.

“Students can’t make up stories anymore. Parents can print out assignments, teacher notes and grades at home and highlight things for students to find when they come home from school,” Donnelly said.

Lloyd High School senior Rebecca Smith said she likes being able to access school information from home but admits that “some students don’t like it when their parents find out about their grades at the same time they do.”

Mason High School senior Andi Zeigler said “it’s nice because my dad can still be involved in my school even though he is so far away and I can have things to include him in on and talk to him about.”

Zeigler’s other son, John, a Mason sophomore, is less enthusiastic.

Most of the time, the link is useful, John said, “but if you miss just one assignment, everyone at home knows about it.”

Zeigler plans to return to his stateside job as director of youth ministries for a Mason church after his yearlong Iraq tour. He jokes that when he announced earlier this year at his church that he was going to the Middle Eastern country, he made a point of turning to his children to make a separate family announcement.

“And I’ll still be using Edline,” he said.