Our school system implemented a new electronic grade book program. It was connected to our attendance and report card software. We were told to start using this program two years ago. Many people had problems with the grade book and couldn’t figure out how to work it. In addition we had many teachers who would rather keep their grades in a hard copy grade book. The resistance was great among most teachers. This system was to help reduce our paperwork. Many teachers just plain refused to use the system. Others used the system unsuccessfully and became frustrated.
I believe this system would have worked better if our teachers had had someone supporting and training them on the new system using the ARCS program. Our teachers were never trained on this system. Therefore, there was a great deal of frustration. We could have gotten the teachers attention by making sure they understood the relevance of the grade book. If we could have explain how much this new program will lighten their load (Driscoll, 2005). In addition, our teachers needed trained on this new system and then they needed support to help them when they had problems. Many times our teachers gave up when they ran into problems. This support would have given our teachers the confidence to continue with the grade book even if problems arose. After we saw the grade book worked properly and experienced how much easier this grade book made things, I believe the resistance would have been lessened.
Driscoll, M. P. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction (3rd ed.). Boston: Pearson Allyn and Bacon.
Aimee
ReplyDeleteMy school system is on its second grade book system. I personally enjoy the concept of the electronic grade book system but I dislike the fact that we have to keep the hard copy also. I will admit that we were fortunate enough to have good training. We received an online manual two weeks before we had the actual hands on training. Training was a redelivery from one of our own teachers. The good thing about that was the person that was selected to receive the training first was positive about the change. She even provided a discussion page for all of us so we could ask questions. I do agree that proper training and support can make a world of difference in success or the lack of it.
I commented on Candice's site
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I commented on Debbie's site
http://moduleresponses.blogspot.com/2011/08/module-5-response.html
Aimee,
ReplyDeleteI agree the lack of a support system hindered the implementation. As we know humans in general, (for the most part) are resistant to change. We had a similar situation at my school while implementing electronic grade book. We had a one day training, and the support system was weak. eventually we were able to help each other enough to figure it out but it left a "bad taste" for technology in the mouths of everyone involved.