We as educators are always looking for new and efficient ways to interact and communicate with our students and parents. The use of technology in the classroom has made this so much easier and FreshGrade is an amazing tool that many districts in British Columbia are starting to use. FreshGrade allows teachers to plan lessons easily and efficiently, it also keeps all of your lesson plans organized in one easy to view area. The program lets teachers attach assignments and media that their students can easily access whether in the classroom or at home. Each student can also make their own digital profile, that allows for teachers to view all student work in one place. It also lets the teachers leave their students comments and feedback on all assignments. Students can also write and discuss their learning in their own learning journals, letting teachers see where students may be struggling or what they liked about an assignment. Another feature that teachers love about FreshGrade is that it allows for them to enter all grades into the gradebook feature, making assessment simple and organized. By having all students assessment and comments available on the site, teachers can communicate with parents more efficiently about their students progress.
Although FreshGrade has many positive features, after some research we have found a few cons that users should take into consideration. The program does not support drawing tools, allow voice narration, or text to speech tools. The program can also be very time consuming for teachers as it adds another task for them to be completely and updating everyday. For parents who may not feel comfortable with having their students information on the internet, teachers may find it difficult to be sending feedback both on FreshGrade as well as in other forms for those students who are not on the site. All in all, FreshGrade has more pros than cons and we believe that this is a program that we as future teachers would be interested in using with our own future students.
