Dashboard system puts Franklin Regional students in educational driver's seat

The dog ate my homework and I left my book report at home are about to become excuses of the past at one local school district. Students won't even be able to claim that their computer disk of homework was mysteriously erased.

To better prepare their students, the Franklin Regional School District is implementing a new "Dashboard" program. The interactive program will provide a variety of internal and external communication networks to keep parents, teachers and students all on the same virtual page without ever having to use a piece of paper. Plans are for the program to be up and running for the 2007-08 school year.

While the school district has had an internal e-mail and an electronic grade book system for several years, the new system would also enable parents to interact with teachers and students to work on homework assignments and other projects from any computer, eliminating the need for students to tote around term papers or disks. In addition, parents can track attendance and grades while students can download handouts and class notes.

"The students can log on to use the virtual backpack and post their work, get handouts and work away from home and school," said Frank Muto, the supervisor of technology service for Franklin Regional. "With their user name and password, they will be able to get to their virtual locker from anywhere. And teachers are able to post assignments and projects and check work progress."

"We've been working on student information systems for quite a while," said Franklin Regional School District Superintendent Emery D'Arcangelo. "The ability to send electronic work using a student's own file and server with no disk is really important. We're excited about the features that will change delivery methods."

Muto said several other schools in the state are also in the process of implementing the Dashboard program. Among those are the Pittsburgh City High School, the City Charter School and Wallenpaupack Area School District on the other side of the state. Other school districts are planning similar projects for upcoming years.

While the program will put Franklin Regional students on the cutting edge, it will only be effective if every student in the district has access to a home computer or other community computer with Internet capabilities. The administration has thought of that, too.

D'Arcangelo said that through surveys the district conducted, it was determined that roughly 90 percent of the students in the district have access to computers off school grounds. To help ensure that every student will have a computer with Internet capabilities made available to him, D'Arcangelo said Franklin Regional would be willing to follow the lead of other area districts that makes district computers available for donation to identified families when the district replenishes or upgrades its campus hardware.

The Dashboard program will be available to all classrooms in the district, kindergarten through 12th grade; however, for obvious reasons, the upper level grades will have more functions and students will have access to only their own teacher's areas.

Hackers stole my homework is also a no-go excuse. Various security measures that are already in place for electronic grade books will be extended to protect the new Dashboard system as well. In addition, D'Arcangelo pointed to the one-year phase the district has established to work out bugs and test features.

"Ultimately, we hope this will be a new communication feature that will serve as an Intranet or primary communication system," Muto said. "The goal is to use the Dashboard program as a communication tool that will better prepare students for life after high school."

"Technology is changing rapidly and changing traditional education as we know it," D'Arcangelo said. "Everyone is online and everyone has blogs and Myspace accounts. This is a device to explore that world. (The Dashboard program) is one step in many to help our students gain a higher understanding of technology that will prepare them."