Blog 12

  I chose Skyward from Mr. Wang's communication tools because I think it is very efficient in terms of students, parents, teachers, or principals to check students' progress. The tool remembers logins and allows for easy access to check what may be missing, what is due in the future, or the grade a student has received.

Skyward has a couple of great features in addition to helping over 2,000 schools/organizations nationwide it also is a great tool as a student information system K-12. Along with a finance and human resources management system. Skyward has been a tool that has helped over 7 million students. 

Ease of use

Skyward as a tool is very easy to use in terms of class organization, assignment due dates, submitting grades,  and easy access for all to view. I would say Skyward is an efficient tool similar to canvas to quickly check scores and the feedback that was left. I think out of the tools this one has to be the simplest because all it has is grades, due dates, and feedback. This tool is very convenient for teachers because it has fewer descriptions and paperwork to have to manage. Skyward does a great job of working with schools and local organizations to figure out what is the best version of themself they can be in order to promote more effective user access. 

Here is an outline video of what Skyward is and does

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmb1NBODXhw

Versatility

I would have to say this is where Skyward lacks the most and losses a lot of users. This is because its only options are posting grades, seeing due dates, and the small feedback teachers can give. Skyward doesn't allow for commenting back and forth, it doesn't allow for students to directly access assignments or complete them on Skyward. Skyward really lacks the options to do anything education through it such as message teachers, get feedback on what was done right or wrong on an assignment, or even important details about the assignment itself. I think Skyward is a great tool because it is what I grew up with until college but I think with modern times and more apps coming out that allow better alternatives and more options Skyward has fallen down my chart of great teacher resources. I think it would need to have far more options as to what teachers could do within the app to make it more useful to use.

Likelihood of using it

I think I would use it if it was something my school district liked such as the one I grew up in because it was a staple of the school system. But, if I had an option to choose a tool I would definitely not use this one because of how little I could do on it along with the lack of communication it provides. I would want something that I could provide feedback to students along with allowing access to do assignments on the app directly in case they were sick or on vacation. 

Connections to the course

I think that Skyward connects to the 7 events and technologies by presenting the content, providing feedback, and gaining attention. Skyward presents content in a more obscure way because it says more of the due dates and what the class will be doing but not exactly the task at hand. As for providing feedback, this is Skyward's best attribute because students can see grades and maybe one sentence on what was good or bad but still minimal feedback. Lastly, gaining attention is present since students can see their grade overall, grade on certain assignments along with important due dates. Skyward connects with TLC 1 planning and TLC 2 assessing. Tlc 2 assessing is seen in the grades given back to students and their grades overall. TLC 1 is done by the teacher because they plan out the quarter or semester the due dates are set and given for each assignment. This helps students to know when each assignment will need to be completed.