Edline: Friend or foe?

Author: Kristen De Deyn Kirk

Chesapeake, my hometown, introduced Edline for its schools a few years ago, and at first I was thrilled. I could go online every day and make sure my children were handing in homework and preparing for upcoming tests and projects. Everything was right there: Assignments for each class and grades, and their up-to-date overall grades.

Sadly, I'm not so thrilled with Edline anymore. Some of my kids' teachers do not post assignments as they're told to by their principals; they don't input grades often; and they seem a tad annoyed when I gently ask if maybe they did try to update their info but there was a system glitch. (I swear I'm nice about this...sometimes waiting two or three weeks to ask about updates (they're supposed to update every Wednesday)).

Other teachers are wonderful about Edline -- posting what they're "supposed to" AND classnotes and messages to parents about related, outside learning opportunities. I say thank you to these teachers -- and wonder if they can encourage their not-so-Edline-friendly co-workers to do the same. I know they are busy and working hard in the classroom, and I promise that I will do my best to lighten their load by getting my kids ready to learn and doing their work to support them, the teachers.

Edline can be *the* line that brings together the needed learning triangle, with the student the top spot and the teacher and the parent at the bottom corners -- if only every teacher will connect those dots with this basic technology.