Barbour, M. K. (2003, November). Connecting the home and school through electronic dialogue. Presentation at the annual Newfoundland Network of Innovative Schools Forum conference, Clarenville, NL.

1. Connecting the
Home and School
through
Electronic Dialogue

2. CHASED
ThinkWave (http://www.thinkwave.com)
Blackboard (http://www.blackboard.com)
myGradebook (http://www.mygradebook.com)
Online homework calendars (http://
www.calendarserver.com)
Plagerism detection systems (http://
www.plageriserve.com)

3. ThinkWave
ThinkWave.com is a free web service that helps teachers easily
communicate with students and parents. Teachers can use
ThinkWave.com to provide real-time information about assignments,
results, attendance and school curriculum to students and parents. By
using ThinkWave, teachers are helping families become more involved in
their children's education.
It is simple for teachers to provide the benefits of ThinkWave.com to
students and parents. First, a teacher should get his or her free copy of
ThinkWave Educator classroom management software. Then,
ThinkWave Educator automatically publishes classroom information on
ThinkWave.com. Finally, the teacher gives handouts to students and
parents which allow them to login to ThinkWave.com. This process is
largely automated (and vividly explained), allowing even the most
computer-shy student, parent, or teacher to get online.
Design Technology 2109 (1999-2000)
Cultural Tourism 3127 (2000-01)

4. ThinkWave
System was used as a part of the class (i.e., students had to access it to
obtain assignments).
Two thirds of the students in Design Technology 2109 indicated that they
would like to see ThinkWave used more in their schooling.
With the same course, only six parents completed the survey and only two
of these accessed the system. However, all six indicated that they would
like to see ThinkWave used more as well.
In the Cultural Tourism 3127 course, again two thirds of students
indicated that they would like to see the use of ThinkWave expanded.
Only four parents completed the survey this time and out of those four
only two had accessed the system. Yet again, all the parents who
completed the survey indicated that they wished more teachers would use
ThinkWave.

5. BlackBoard
While the Blackboard.com system offers many different services and
products, the one which was used in this pilot was their online course
delivery system. This system allows teachers to extend their classroom
beyond school walls in ways including:
– posting course materials and handouts on the Web;
– providing online forums for class discussions;
– collecting and annotating Internet-based curricular resources;
– using online assessments to help students prepare for standardized
tests;
– differentiating instruction for exceptional populations (gifted and
talented, special education, advanced placement) using group tools;
– conducting review sessions and parent conferences via real-time
virtual classroom and chat tools; and communicating more easily and
effectively with parents.
Career Exploraion 1101 (2000-01)

6. BlackBoard
System was again used as a part of the class (i.e., students had to
access it to participate in asynchronous discussion forum and to
obtain assignments).
This time only half of the students in the Career Exploration 1101
felt that they would like to see BlackBoard used more in their
schooling.
However, two thirds indicated that they would like to see other
online technologies that could report attendance and grades, post
assignments and test review materials used more in their
schooling.
There was no separate accounts for parents with this system, so
there was no need to survey parents.

7. myGradeBook
myGradebook is "a web-based teacher gradebook
useful in enhancing communication between teachers,
students and parents in all levels of education.
myGradebook allows teachers to log in and work on
their gradebook at any time from any computer
connected to the Internet. When you assign passwords
to students and parents, they can log in to view their
own grading and attendance summaries. With
myGradebook you can track, calculate, and report
grades and attendance securely over the Internet.
World Geography 3200/3202 (2001-02)
Online Advanced Placement Social Studies courses
(2001-02)

8. myGradeBook
Use of the system was entirely voluntary.
Fifteen of the 23 students had home computers and eight of these students
accessed the myGradeBook system (out of the 13 who completed the end
of term survey).
All eight who accessed the system and three who didn’t access the system
indicated that they would use it more if additional teachers made use of
myGradeBook.
With the same course, only three parents completed the survey and none
of these accessed the system. However, all three indicated that they would
like to see myGradeBook used more as well.
There were only five students involved in the online Advanced Placement
initiative and only one of those five accessed the system. All five, however,
indicated that they would like to see teachers in their own school make use
of similar systems.

9. Online Homework Calendars
There are numerous types of web-based calendars
available on the Internet. The one that has been used
by the CHASED Research Initiative is Calendar
Server. Calendar Server is a free service, that allows
individuals to create their own accounts and maintain a
calendar at the www.CalendarServer.com site. The
Calendar Server site is used to create a calendar of
homework; up-coming tests, assignments, and science
labs; special events; etc. that students and parents can
access from the school or from home.
Grade 8 (2001-02)

10. Online Homework Calendars
Use of the system was entirely voluntary.
Thirteen of the 21 students had home computers and five of these
students accessed the CalendarServer system.
All five who accessed the system and seven who didn’t access the
system indicated that they would use it more if additional teachers
made use of online calendars.
With the same course, thirteen parents completed the survey and
six of these accessed the system. All six that accessed the system
and five of the seven who didn’t access the system indicated that
they would like to see online homework calendars used more often
in their child’s schooling.

11. Plagerism Detection
PlagiServe is an advanced service designed to assist educators in detecting academic
dishonesty. It is a powerful tool that verifies the originality of papers by using
Internet-based technology. For example:
– PlagiServe not only searches the Internet for duplicates of the paper, but also
analyzes it, providing evidence of plagiarism to the teacher.
– PlagiServe has an extensive local database of 70,000 student term papers,
essays and cliff notes.
– PlagiServe has crawled all existing Paper Mills and searches through all the
papers they contain that makes digital cheating meaningless.
– PlagiServe searches over 1.3 billion pages when checking originality of the
paper.
As the Internet becomes more accessible to students, the ability of instructors to
guard against academic dishonesty become more difficult. While there are a
number of plagerism detection sites available on the Internet, Plagiserve is one of
the few that is provided free-of-charge to any instructor, regardless of number of
classes or the number of students.
Canadian History 1201 (2002-03)
World History 3201 (2002-03)

12. Connecting the Home
and School through
Electronic Dialogue
http://www.ncf.ca/chased/