Requesting feedback: If you’ve had a child in elementary/middle school in the last year or two, how many online resources were you expected to track as a parent? How did that work out for you and your child?
Caed’s 5th grade class has 20 different websites that we need to log into, using his district-provided account. Those range from Google Drive, Classroom, MS Office, Canvas, Aeries, Clever, Flip, Instructure… the list goes on for seemingly days. I’m not complaining about the wealth of resources, because they’re all extremely useful. But only when you know which location to log into to find the information you need, when you need it.
The problem is that there’s no roadmap, guide or central authoritative hub; no single destination for a parent to log into, find what is due tomorrow (or this week/month) with DIRECT links to all of the necessary worksheets and educational resources. We are left stumbling through blindly.
I’m not blaming the teacher or the district IT department, none of whom are qualified as UX/UI designers. Yet as education continues to dive relentlessly deeper and deeper into technology-dependent instruction, districts need to step up their efforts in making the data consistent, useful and manageable. My company has had to for our clients. That’s what we specialize in. In my opinion, its unfair to expect non-technical parents to bridge that technology vs. user experience gap because it only hinders their child’s ability to utilize the resources we are all technically paying for.
Your experience?