I’m an IT director for a small school that had GradeQuick forced on us because it is supposed to integrate with a clunky web portal called Edline. I *hate* this software. The interface is horrible and clumsy. It feels like something from the early 90s and is not nearly as intuitive as it should be. It feels like it was built to mimic the old paper ledger> This is fine if the goal is to transition long time educators to the digital realm, but it ignores the needs and modern workflow of newer teachers who may never have had to use one. Anyone who has used a spreadsheet will find this program frustrating.

Then on top if it, there is no true integration, just a shortcut button that exports the data to a file and automatically opens up the Edline website to the upload page. Transferring data to/from SchoolMinder is an equally annoying procedure that is clearly a hacked method that was bolted onto an increasingly outdated approach.

The thing many of these legacy companies fail to realize is that for the user, the interface IS the product. It should be seamless and transparent as possible. When is the last time you needed open a book and read the steps for ordering something off of Amazon? Ebay, Youtube, Facebook, etc, just work. Users have gotten used to a certain ease of functionality and for the most part the available actions on such sites are self-evident and easy to use. With “web 2.0″ technologies like ajax, I’m puzzled as to why we don’t hold gradebook software to the same expectations.

Engrade.com is a perfect example of applying the technology to aid the user, rather than expecting the user to bend to the requirements of the programmer. It is by far the best gradebook I’ve tried. Now if only its creators had the chance to apply their software design philosophy to the rest of the student information system pipeline.

Our school is experiencing something similar to this with our new online grading system (Gradequick). It’s not user-friendly or intuitive and as a result, we have a number of teachers struggling to get their grades properly submitted and displayed for students and parents to see. The Gradequick people even sent out a rep to help our faculty with some of the problems and one of the first things he said was, “We have hundreds of schools using our program and 99% of the time, the problem is not with Gradequick, but rather the teachers.” Needless to say, there were a lot of people who took exception to that comment.

As Stephanie mentioned, I am a teacher first, not a IT specialist. If I have to be an IT specialist to figure out your program for use in my classroom, then I’m most likely not going to use it. As they say in the military, Keep It Simple Stupid.

Glad to have you as a member of the Teacher Collaborative. I look forward to any additional thoughts you can add to the topics being discussed there.

That is what makes you such an oustanding teacher.

By the way, I completely agree with your synopsis. Technology should be a fluid addition to the classroom, not a burden.