Today I was given our monthly newsletter from the state education department of Hawaii and the focus was Six Keys to Successful Parent Involvement. The first key was communication and highlighted Mililani High School in using Edline to communicate homework assignments, grades, school events, exam dates, and more. It is good to see more schools jumping on the bandwagon of online communication. I first started using Edline in 2007 and since I was the IT coordinator, I helped out by holding training seminars for teachers. Previously in 2003, I used and promoted MyGradeBook.com at our school, which is a very effective online grading system and an inexpensive option compared to Edline but with more limitations.Tha advantages in Edline is that it brings all of the teacher and school communication under one roof. At our school, it saved us money and printing cost because it eliminated the need to mail out report cards to the parents. Parents could easily login to the site and view their child’s grades. After Edline was implemented, I saw a lot more effort on behalf of my students. I even had a student ask me on a Friday to wait until Monday to grade and update my online gradebook because his mom checked his grades almost every night and he did not want to be grounded over the weekend.
Edline provides schools with personalized websites where parents and students can view their grades and be connected to the school’s communication network. Thai-Chinese International School and Seoul International School have taken advantage and both have used Edline’s website templates to enhance their school online. At TCIS you can view current news, calendars, teacher webpages, and info about the school. It is very easy for school administrators to login and change the web content as well as the look of the site. Although, I would like to see Edline improve its template and image structure.