Attributes of PowerTeacher Online Gradebook

I chose to focus on the perceived attributes of our district’s new online grade book, PowerTeacher. PowerTeacher allows students and parents to log-in and view students’ grades and attendance records for each class. It uploads easily into Chancery, the district’s program for attendance records, registration, and grade keeping. Below I explored PowerTeacher’s attributes.

Relative Advantage

Does PowerTeacher grade book offer teachers a better way to keep their grades? The answer depends on whether or not the teachers are currently using and paying for any other online grade book programs. One advantage is that there are no fees to use PowerTeacher because the district supports it. This is much better than the eight to ten dollars per month teachers were paying to have their own online grade book. Students and parents will also be able to access PowerTeacher for all classes (as opposed to just teachers who paid for a program). This allows them to be informed and proactive when it comes to their progress in classes. The best benefit of PowerTeacher is that it easily uploads into Chancery saving teachers the added step of entering grades by hand.

Compatibility

PowerTeacher is not compatible with many teachers’ needs from an online grade book program. Many of us who have paid for other programs like SnapGrades or TeacherEase are very disappointed with PowerTeacher. Basically, parents and students can only log-on and view grades. There are no options to email teachers with concerns. Most importantly, teachers aren’t able to send out email reports concerning averages or missing grades. If parents aren’t proactive enough to check the grade book on their own (and from experience I’ve found that many in our school aren’t) the teachers have no ways of sending out communications to them as reminders. This definitely hinders the acceptance of the program.

Complexity

As opposed to other online grade books, PowerTeacher does not have a similar interface which makes it much more difficult to learn. We had several training sessions, and teachers are still having trouble using the program, even technology savvy ones. Also, several teachers are not able to access the program from home for unknown reasons, and others have lost several minutes of work due to program glitches. At this point, I haven’t talked with one teacher who is happy with the program.

Trailability

The teachers were not asked to try out this program before the district adopted it. I think that mainly has to do with the fact that the district doesn’t have many grade book options that are compatible with Chancery. We were given one six weeks before we were all expected to be on PowerTeacher. Starting next semester, parents will be able to access the program. The training period, particularly for novice teachers, was not long enough.

Observability

The observable benefits have already been discussed in previous sections. The most observable benefits to PowerTeacher are that administrators, coaches, students, and parents can all view students’ grades at any point in the grading period. The ease of uploading the averages into Chancery is also an observable benefit.

In Summary

Although PowerTeacher does have observable benefits and advantages, the complexity and compatibility of the program definitely hinder the adoption of this new technological innovation. Teachers are increasingly frustrated with the difficult interface of the program and the glitches that are causing us valuable time. Also, the district has not done a good job training us sufficiently. Teachers who have experience with other online grade book programs also find PowerTeacher incompatible with their needs, particularly when it comes to sending out reports concerning averages and missing work to parents’ emails. All in all, I feel my district chose this program too hastily without considering other options that are easier to use and more compatible with the teachers’ needs.