FRIday september 30 2016
In This Issue features
france
spread
foreign exchange students
variety
Nice ride
Viewer
Volume 64 Issue 1
Google claims the classroom by Amber Zhao managing editor-copy Released in 2014, Google Classroom is an online educational platform for students and teachers to complete, view and grade assignments. It syncs with Drive, Gmail and Calendar to consolidate and organize doing homework online. Over the years, more Mounds View teachers have been incorporating Google Classroom into their curriculums. Classroom’s popularity amongst teachers has not gone unnoticed. “The first time I used Classroom was sophomore year. Now, most of my classes use it,” said senior Jacqueline Schneider. Some teachers, like science teacher Aaron Ogdahl, have been using Classroom for a few years because of how streamlined it is. “I use [Classroom] because it is an extremely efficient tool in distributing material electronically. It saves a ton of paper and it keeps everything in one spot,” he said. Others are long-time Moodle users just trying Classroom, like math teacher Michael Huberty. “Personally, I prefer Moodle for my classes and am still using Moodle for Multivariable calc. However, this district has not updated Moodle in a while and so it doesn’t function as well as it should,” he said. “We thought we’d give Google
Classroom a try with AP Stats to see how it goes.” Still other teachers have decided to stick with Moodle because the majority of their materials are already on the platform. Social studies teacher Martha Rush is one of them. “I prefer Moodle partly because I have already created the materials. Linking PDFs is not a big deal to switch over, but recreating all of the interactive quizzes would take significant time. I’d prefer not to spend a lot of time retyping if I can avoid it,” she said. For students, Classroom makes getting homework done on time easier. “It’s pretty simple to use, and I usually get emails about new assignments,” said Bola Lawal, 10. Mounds View is just transitioning to Classroom, but it seems to be a platform to stay.
How many classes use Google Classroom? Number of Classes using Google Classroom
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 = five people
63 student were polled information compiled by Amber Zhao
Students view StudentVUE by Ben Davis editorials editor For many years, the Mounds View School District has used School View for students and parents to check grades, pay for lunch money and register for activities. However, when TIES discontinued School View, the district had to find a replacement. In the absence of School View, Mounds View Schools adopted ParentVue as the new system for student information. For some students, the new system is confusing. Eliana Scheett, 11, said, “I have absolutely no clue what it is or how to work it, which makes it fairly difficult to stay on top of my grades. I finally mastered School View last year and now I’m starting from scratch.”
For others, ParentVue is more helpful. “I think [ParentVue] is more convenient because of the simplicity and elegance of the layout. The functionality of it is nearly identical to School View, and you have the added benefit of being able to see grades in more detail,” said Jeffrey Hu, 11. Principal Jeffrey Ridlehoover has acknowledged the confusion and the district has addressed some tech concerns. “Students and families have experienced some login issues and we have had some concerns expressed related to the functionality and communication pieces of Synergy and Moodle, but these issues appear to have been corrected and did not have anything to do with the manner in which grades and assignments are viewed through the new technology,” he said. Sunny Lim, 11, checks StudentVUE.
photo by Amber Zhao