Classroom workflow app Showbie is now creating accounts specifically for parents to login and view their child’s progress. The new parent access feature allows parents to see what their children are learning, allowing them to view upcoming assignments, grades, and feedback by simply logging in.
“We initially set out to increase transparency between teachers and students in 1:1 classrooms by providing technology that would streamline assignments and feedback. We’re thrilled to extend this mission to include parents of the more than 2 million classroom teachers and students who use Showbie today,” explains Colin Bramm, Showbie’s Cofounder and CEO.
Though the idea of sharing an entire classroom with parents is intimidating for many teachers, Showbie’s parent access feature gives them control over what parents can and can’t see. Teachers also have the option of making only student portfolios viewable to parents, giving them more control over which assignments and grades parents have access to. Whatever way they choose to use parent access, the overarching goal is to alleviate the stress of teachers and parents by keeping everyone on the same page.
One of the hopes with features like parent access is to make stressful and surprising parent/teacher interviews a thing of the past.
Joanne Lau, a Grade 1 and 2 teacher at David Livingstone Elementary School in Vancouver, BC, explains the benefit of giving parents access to student work. “It’s a great way to communicate with parents and keep them up to date on where their children are at in terms of learning, and it eliminates surprises during report card time,” she said. “Also, parents can see the instant notification, so they can work on things with their children instead of finding it out when it’s too late.”
Among the desired results are ridding parents of ‘report card shock’ by mitigating surprises during parent/teacher conference time, and giving parents an inside look at classroom technology when they may have previously had no idea what or how their children were learning.
