Sarah Bean's Basic Webpage


Considering Parent Portal Pages

The Pros and Cons of Parent Portal Pages

Pros

There are many pros to having a parent portal page for parents of students to have access to. Not only do they help parents to feel connected to what their child is doing, but they also include helpful information such as

Parents, and even students, will find all of this information very useful.


Cons

However, there are some cons to parent portal pages, as well. Most of these cons are in the form of poor design, such as:

If the page is difficult to use, or doesn't have pertinent information, parents are much less likely to use it.


Other Considerations

Besides the pros and cons of the usefulness of the websites themselves, there are two other matters to consider:

  1. Teaching users to use the page
  2. Security

Teaching Users to the Use the Page

Even with the prevalence of technology, not everyone is used to navigating the web. Sometimes, using a new page will require at least a little training in order for end-users to get the most out of it. Who will teach the parents where they can find certain information? What if they have questions? These are the things that administrators need to keep in mind as they design and implement a parent portal page


Security

Nothing matters more to parents than their child's safety. Parent portal pages can include personal information that parents would not want just anyone to have access to. To this end, it is vital that there is proper security in place, such as logins and passwords, to protect user information.


Conclusion

The cons and questions of parent portal pages can be addressed with ease by a properly trained website administrator. The information provided on parent portal pages will often win out over a poorly designed page, so parents will continue to use it nevertheless.

It kinda sucks to navigate, but I like to see the grades and the calendar, so I'll still use it.
-Jayna C.


Considering Student Work Pages

The Pros and Cons of Student Work Pages

Pros

There are a number of pros to having student work pages:

  1. Student work is "published" so anyone can see
  2. Student work is more official, so possibly more important the student
  3. Student work can be kept more organized and easily accessible and editable

Students have more buy-in when their work is put up to view by others. They feel more professional, and their portfolio of work appears more polished.


Cons

Most of the cons go hand-in-hand with the pros:

  1. If anyone can see the work, anyone can also steal the work or comment on the work, sometimes in an inappropriate way
  2. If the work is more important, it could cause undue stress to the student, or take them longer to complete
  3. If student work is more easily accessible and editable, it could also cause undue stress on the student, and they may forever "tweak" their work

These cons, however, could be solves by clear expectations and security measures put in place by a website administrator.


Other Considerations

There are a few reasons that keeping student work on-line may just not be feasible:

In these situations, it is important to recognize that technology is not the answer to everything, and having a physical portfolio or hands-on project can be just as beneficial as an on-line presence


Conclusion

While students may not prefer to work on-line, or may not have access to the internet outside of school, it is still important that they know how to create a professional on-line presence. Technology is the wave of the future, so whether it is a picture of their work, or a document they can upload, it would be beneficial for students to at least experience a student work page. To see a some ideas of what to include in a student portfolio, go here