mrbios Posted January 26, 2016 Posted January 26, 2016 Anyone used this? Is it worth the cost? Is there a better alternative? Our head of IT just returned from BETT and it was requested of him to look at this. I don't actually know the ins and outs of it but i wonder if anyone who does can list alternatives as from what he's told us on cost it seems like a waste of money for something that the VLE should be able to do (but apparently can't)
Steve21 Posted January 26, 2016 Posted January 26, 2016 (edited) Hate it with a passion. No end of "I can't do my homework because it doesn't work", kids not handing passwords to parents, people forgetting passwords to not do homework, useless parents etc who can't understand how to logon and want hundreds of resets. This app wouldn't work if I have a 10 year old phone etc etc, not using the unique link to logon to AD credentials don't work, people coming from old schools who used it need manually migration by support teams, mid-day upgrades that break the whole system so no-one does homework Just a poor lazy way of doing homework that brings IT millions of issues "my personal opinion" Basically it's at the stage where us as IT are "almost" saying, we aren't dealing with it. If admin want to do these and run about chasing support issues be our guest Steve Edited January 26, 2016 by Steve21 2
synaesthesia Posted January 26, 2016 Posted January 26, 2016 We love it here. With the proper pushing from staff to both students and parents it works wonderfully well. Yes we get "It doesn't work" etc however it's so easy to reset passwords it's not a problem at all. It's been a game changer here. It adds 0 workload to us in ICT. 1
mrbios Posted January 26, 2016 Author Posted January 26, 2016 Well...there's two polar opposite opinions! That doesn't help me at all! (well it does, but you cancel each other out somewhat!)
5tu Posted January 26, 2016 Posted January 26, 2016 Hate it with a passion. No end of "I can't do my homework because it doesn't work", kids not handing passwords to parents, people forgetting passwords to not do homework, useless parents etc who can't understand how to logon and want hundreds of resets. This app wouldn't work if I have a 10 year old phone etc etc, not using the unique link to logon to AD credentials don't work, people coming from old schools who used it need manually migration by support teams, mid-day upgrades that break the whole system so no-one does homework Just a poor lazy way of doing homework that brings IT millions of issues "my personal opinion" Basically it's at the stage where us as IT are "almost" saying, we aren't dealing with it. If admin want to do these and run about chasing support issues be our guest Steve I'm with @Steve21 on this one. We hate it too for all the reasons given above. I'm sure it's more of a barrier to learning and homework than an enabler. 1
Danp Posted January 26, 2016 Posted January 26, 2016 Not sure on the cost of Show my Homework (looked at it 2 years ago) but we have Firefly, that allows homework hand in as well as a host of other features.
Steve21 Posted January 26, 2016 Posted January 26, 2016 I'd be curious to know how you resolve other issues with it though Syn For example ones we've had in the last week - "My parents see different homework to what I see on my phone" "My computer can't login to SMHW but my parents can" "I don't have internet connection at home for X times" "Website was down yesterday couldn't do any homework" "I see homework that isn't set yet on my phone and not website" Cost wise ours was £2.7k for 2 years (signed up without asking for by management), but not sure if it's based on student figures Steve
mrbios Posted January 26, 2016 Author Posted January 26, 2016 Not sure on the cost of Show my Homework (looked at it 2 years ago) but we have Firefly, that allows homework hand in as well as a host of other features. What sort of costs are you paying for firefly, if you don't mind me asking? Do you see similar issues to steve with that? (Many of the issues he mentions sounds inherent of any online homework management i guess)
synaesthesia Posted January 26, 2016 Posted January 26, 2016 We don't have those issues - it's not our problem if people have their own internet connection issues and everyone understands that. We had a few mismatches on homework seen by parents and students however that was entirely down to poor SIMS data and has since been rectified.
jambocb Posted January 26, 2016 Posted January 26, 2016 We're currently looking at this at the moment, and i sat in on a demo recently (with school management). One concern i had was how much of the pupil/parents data does it need to import? I did ask during the demo, however i'm wondering if any of you who currently use the software can confirm? I was advised it would just be the student's first/surname, but it didn't come across as certain.
mrbios Posted January 26, 2016 Author Posted January 26, 2016 I'm curious, what can "Show My Homework" and "Firefly" do, that most homework management within VLEs cannot? or better yet, what can it do that the its learning vle can't? I've recently looked at ruler as an office 365 link too, what can it do that the homework management within that cannot?
jtotheb Posted January 26, 2016 Posted January 26, 2016 My son's school use it. As a parent it's ok. For setting and submitting homework would Google Classroom fit the bill? However, does that have the parental view that SMH has?
synaesthesia Posted January 26, 2016 Posted January 26, 2016 It's just more specific. No doubt with enough thought and training a VLE could do exactly that. In fact, I'd strongly suggest using the VLE for that purpose if it was already being extremely well used.
Danp Posted January 26, 2016 Posted January 26, 2016 What sort of costs are you paying for firefly, if you don't mind me asking? Do you see similar issues to steve with that? (Many of the issues he mentions sounds inherent of any online homework management i guess) The latest prices from there are along the line of between £7-12 per pupil, per year. I am in no double a VLE solution could do that task but we picked Firefly as it's used for out Parent Portal to show attendance, reports, notifications etc.
3s-gtech Posted January 26, 2016 Posted January 26, 2016 I do like our solution which we've had for a few years now, which is a Wordpress blog which teachers post the homework to. It doesn't at present show the particular homework for a student, but it's easy to search by class, teacher or subject by using the categories and tags options in WP. Login for staff is LDAP to AD. No logons for students so no hassle there. We're hoping that we can pull data from the back end to pipe to a mobile app so students can get their individual timetables. 1
jonnykewell1 Posted January 26, 2016 Posted January 26, 2016 We've been using show my homework for a while now and we haven't had any major problems really. Students login with their school Google Apps accounts and it works as long as their e-mail address is linked to their account. Accounts are created from SIMS but as we don't store student email in SIMS we have to add that in either in Bulk through at the start of the year or manually for the odd new account. We do have lots of students not realising that they need to login with their Google account and try login on the SMH login section rather than clicking the google icon on the homepage but other than that we have no real headaches. Teachers seem to be liking it. Parents have recently received their account login details and although we have had a few ring up, it's not been a big issue.
tomo1095 Posted January 26, 2016 Posted January 26, 2016 All the issues mentioned seem to be the same as you'd expect with any other similar system imo. You're never going to get away from the browser/smartphone compatibility, the problems with their internet connection or their ability to remember passwords.
CyberNerd Posted January 26, 2016 Posted January 26, 2016 All our homework goes into Google Classroom. It's school policy. It does calendar, Drive and email integration and it is free. When I spoke to Google at BETT they said new in the pipeline is parent access to allow parents view permission over classroom and drive files; like an exercise book. Not sure how or when it will happen: - but I certainly wouldn't spend any money on a service like this.
jmak Posted January 26, 2016 Posted January 26, 2016 Another parent point of view; while I like being able to pull my kids up when they claim to have finished all of their homework, it seems to have turned into them relying on me to tell them what their homework is. That's potentially going to be the case whatever system you use.
timbo343 Posted January 26, 2016 Posted January 26, 2016 Have you looked at Studentfolder.co.uk, SchoolBag.ie, homework4.co.uk?
Sylv3r Posted January 26, 2016 Posted January 26, 2016 I did like the look of the product but we've got the major issue if we roll out something like this with some staff using it and others not - it then proceeds to give parents a mix message on what homework their Son / Daughter has. When its possible just because the system shows no homework it's not the case. Our current method of 'write your homework in your planner' just works. I do have one reservation with the company, they are pushy! Not sure where they got some of our staff names / e-mails from but they constantly pestered them - they have now found their way onto our block list.
psydii Posted January 26, 2016 Posted January 26, 2016 It is all about the visibility of homework. There are no circumstances where you have an Internet connection and a browser that isn't 6 years old that you cannot see the homework set. You don't even need to login (though the experience of you do is greatly enhanced)! It is self service, and provided your sims data is good, very simple to launch successfully. The head does have to mandate its use though to ensure the necessary consistent approach. It also provided visibility into what each and every teacher is setting. Any teacher can run reports against another to see what/how much/the quality of work being set. This is a very powerful tool for raising standards. But primarily, If the school has an issue whereby parents are clamouring for visibility of homework, SMH is the solution. No VLE we have found is this good at being an open homework diary. I believe that Google Classroom and Onenote class notebook may in future have API's that allow developers to mimic many of the SMH core features, but not today. If you don't have a VLE or it has failed, and you need a public homework diary: this is the system.
CyberNerd Posted January 26, 2016 Posted January 26, 2016 I did like the look of the product but we've got the major issue if we roll out something like this with some staff using it and others not - it then proceeds to give parents a mix message on what homework their Son / Daughter has. When its possible just because the system shows no homework it's not the case. Our current method of 'write your homework in your planner' just works. I absolutely agree with these points: Having no system is better than a mixed bag. A H/W system REALLY needs fully management buy in - even the "write it in your planner" method. With our use of Google Classroom it is the only way staff are allowed to set homework (even if the H/W is non-IT related).
CyberNerd Posted January 26, 2016 Posted January 26, 2016 I believe that Google Classroom and Onenote class notebook may in future have API's that allow developers to mimic many of the SMH core features, but not today. Any particular bits? There is an API for Google Classroom and I know it already will sync SIMS classes (either via script or 3rd party support).
psydii Posted January 26, 2016 Posted January 26, 2016 (edited) Any particular bits? There is an API for Google Classroom and I know it already will sync SIMS classes (either via script or 3rd party support). Visibility of homework set filtered by your child and course/teacher/date set. Edited January 26, 2016 by psydii
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