Blackboard for Parents
Many parents today believe that one of the new responsibilities that schools have had to shoulder is the preparation of students to work with the information technology tools now used in the workplace and in university. In order to meet this need, in September 2008, HTS began the process of introducing and implementing a web application called Blackboard. This product allows teachers, at its simplest level, to post materials as they would on websites, but it also provides much more elaborate functionality, such as on-line testing, discussion groups, guided learning activities and Wikis. It is a quantum leap forward from traditional static educational websites in that it will encourage the development of the 21st Century skills students need in the Web 2.0 world.
Here are some of the benefits that Blackboard will provide HTS:
- A much richer environment that will allow teachers to employ a wider variety of strategies for their classes, thereby increasing avenues for student success.
- More access to student grades so that parents do not have to wait until report cards to see how their children are progressing.
- As Blackboard is used by many of the universities our students will attend, exposure to it aligns with our mission of preparing students for university studies.
- An increase in student interest and the number of students we can reach.
- An increase in the effectiveness of how we communicate our programme to parents and students
- A much easier and faster programme for teachers to use than traditional websites. It will free teachers to do more vital work than web updating.
Blackboard is not intended to replace our academic programme. There is no looming shift in practice that will dictate at some point in the near future all lessons will be delivered on-line through Blackboard. It is meant to be another teaching tool. Teachers, with their subject expertise and affinity for working with students, will continue to be the centre of an HTS education.
How do you access Blackboard?
Figure 1: Logging into Blackboard from the HTS home page.
Go to the school’s website (www.hts.on.ca), open the Quick Links menu on the front page and click on the Blackboard Login link (See figure 1 above). You can also open the site by typing this URL into the OPEN menu in your web browser: http://bb.hts.on.ca/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp
On the login page you will see a login menu (See figure 2 below). Enter the credentials that were supplied by the HTS IT Department and press enter. If all goes well, you should then be allowed in.
Figure 2: Blackboard Login Menu
What will you find in Blackboard?
There is no doubt that after logging into Blackboard for the first time, a new user might find the experience a bit overwhelming. There will be links to all of your children’s subjects, some of their clubs or teams and a number of the services like the library or guidance the school offers. With repeated visits, you will become more comfortable finding what you need.
In this introductory period, HTS has focused considerable energy setting up the course sites and training teachers how to use them to support their teaching. It should be said that there will be differences between what parents find in sites, not only because of the differences in computer skills between teachers, but also because not all academic programmes are as suited to Blackboard as others. While English and History teachers may very easily be able to use Blackboard in almost every activity, PHE teachers will continue to use the gym and may only use Blackboard for health materials. Furthermore, teachers of very young students will probably not place as much content in their sites since the very young are not always independent enough learners to be able use Blackboard.
There is a basic level of set up we have asked all teachers to attain. We are striving to have all sites looks and work in the same way, using the same language for navigation. In each academic BB site parents should be able to find the following items:
- Announcements: where homework is to be placed.
- Contacts: here you will find the names and e-mail addresses of your children’s teachers.
- Class Outline: the overview of what children will cover in a course over the entire year.
- Content: course materials organized by unit, major project outlines, and review materials for major tests and exams. Teachers who are more comfortable with Blackboard will use some of the interactive features that allow for on-line collaboration and testing.
Teachers who are more comfortable with Blackboard may include extra materials for enrichment and remediation.
Grade Center
Grade Center is a component of Blackboard that functions as an on-line grade book. Teachers can store all their assessments in it and use it to calculate an overall current grade in a subject. Because it can be viewed continuously, parents and students no longer have to wait until report cards to develop a sense of student progress.
HTS wants to encourage students to focus their attention on what’s important - their academic and personal growth. To this end we are trying to strike the right balance of information that students and parents can use effectively. While there is research indicating students who have some sense of where they stand tend to perform better academically, there is other research indicating that students who are overly concerned about their marks, rather than with learning, become academically risk averse. They shortchange themselves by making short term safer choices in the hope of earning higher marks but might miss those opportunities for greater learning and growth.
In practice this means younger students will have less data posted less frequently than the older students. In the Lower School the Grade Center will be updated on a schedule every two weeks or so. In the Senior School, new data will be posted continuously. As we believe it is not helpful for students to become too focused on how they are achieving in relation to their peers, class or course medians will be available only on report cards at the end of each term.
E-mail makes it very easy for parents to send notes to teachers to request explanations about every mark that appears in the Grade Center. While the school understands the desire for this feedback, it believes that these e-mails do not help student growth as they transfer the burden for learning on the teacher, rather than on the student where it should reside. Furthermore, the amount of e-mail traffic this can generate is so voluminous that it interferes with teachers’ core business, which is to teach and supervise children. We suggest that before contacting the school, parents should be using Grade Center information as starting points for conversations with their children about their marks and academic progress.
E-mail is a great medium for simple communication but if parents feel a trend is emerging they need to phone or come in for an interview. In a school like HTS where phones are not always accessible, e-mail is a great way to set a time for a call.
Troubleshooting
Contact either Craig Brown, Director of IT at cbrown@hts.on.ca or Desmond Burke, Deputy Head - Student Services at desburke@hts.on.ca if you have any trouble with the site.
