Mr. Hill's Educational Blog

Milk Lab 2010

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Genesis Workshop

Right now, my colleagues and I are in the computer lab learning how to us Genesis. Genesis is a student information system that is replacing Easy Grade Pro and SASI. So far, the workshop is going as well as it can get. It does look like it has a high learning curve, so its going to take awhile for all of us to figure out all of its capabilities. I surely do miss Easy Grade Pro. Easy Grad Pro is so easy to use, yet it is very powerful in that it allows you to do. Any teacher would appreciate those capabilities, which I definitely do. It is evident that a teacher had a lot of input in the creation of Easy Grade Pro. On the other hand, Genesis doesn't seem to be teacher friendly. At least not initially from what I am personally experiencing. Others teachers are saying the same thing too. Its like there is one to two more steps you have to make in order to complete a task. Whereas in Easy Grade Pro, you didn't feel that way.

I understand the district's decision to purchase Genesis, because of all the data submission requirements and the reports required by the state and the federal government to get funding, but I also think the makers of Genesis should work to ensure that it becomes teacher friendly. This can be accomplished by gathering input from the very teachers who are using it on a regular basis. I for one can't understand why I can't take the attendance by just clicking the student's picture and having the option to do the attendance? Why do I need to click a link that has a list of student names only? Heck, I'm still learning the names of my students.

Update: I just learned today that I can indeed take the attendance from each student's image. Thank you Genesis.

In the future, I hope Genesis turns out to be the kind of teacher technology that is on par with Easy Grade Pro, which is teacher friendly, powerful and easy to use. As I continue to use Genesis, I will surely let you know.

Today, I learned that copying an assignment from one class to another class just to update an assignment doesn't overwrite the existing assignment. Unfortunately, a new assignment is created, so in effect, you end up doubling the number of assignments. Hrrr...