Edsby vs. SchoolSpeak

I use only Edsby - I have no use for a google classroom as well as an Edsby page. I try to convince and how teachers how easy it is to use only one system

Specifically speaking, SchoolSpeak is best used and only really utilized in education. From K-12 it serves a great purpose in terms of parent interaction and direct communication with parents about child performance, attendance, and scores in school. At younger ages, I think it will be even more appropriate for it to be used to create strictly parent platforms for helping them enroll in things they can do at home for their kids, teach their own children, and monitor their own children—especially if they are stay-at-home parents, homeschooling, or the children are not enrolled in school yet. I think a great idea would be creating a parent portal for newborns with daily activities to do from birth through age three, when they may go to pre-school. This is the only additional option I think that SchoolSpeak could serve.

Incentivized

• It has a home page viewable by students in which there is a Journal space. Teachers can post reminders for example for homework or upcoming events.
• EDSBY has a place where one can create Folders or Unit Assessments which students can access and if need be print themselves a copy of the assessment. These folders can be used for different unit work or for something that is used throughout the semester. For instance, information on The Writing Process is in a folder, as are major assessments.
• It's easy to set up the Grade Book because of the automatic choices that are offered for semester work and culminating work. Weights can be edited and categories of assessment can be changed quickly, if needed.
• If you have a problem, you can ask for help from someone in the school or in the system who knows about the program, or you can send a message to EDSBY, and they are very quick in replying with a fix.

• One thing it does well is one of the tools it incorporation, volunteer forms. These forms work for parents, teachers, and students. One of the hardest things to do is to get confirmation sign-ups and support. This streamlines the process of organizing events.
• The gradebook interface is easy to use and understand. In order to take attendance, complete grades and give assignments, SchoolSpeak actually is an easy platform to learn and is smoothly integrated.
• Archiving of past classes is easy to do and important because schools need to retain records for a long time after students have moved on.
• The platform lets you organize students and find them quickly by graduation.

Incentivized

• Edsby could make the sorting and collecting of information such as attendance easier.
• Enhancements to the messaging system are needed - sorting into folders, searching, etc.

• It can definitely have room for improvement in the design and template options. Using a more appealing layout like WIX or WEEBLY offer, but integrating the school speak platform into it would be a wonderful layout and great functionality.
• I would love to see social media integration. For business courses and media courses, there should be the ability to have social platforms connect directly and load within ShcoolSpeak. Social Media is the newest marketing strategy and it is left out of functionality here.
• Custom font downloads would make the design much easier and more attractive. The fonts they allow you to use are basic and overly common.

Incentivized

The user interface is widely modelled on a web 2.0 design (e.g. Facebook). This is not a criticism per se, as it makes moving around the site very easy and familiar. The mobile site is also very well designed, it makes good use of space and is also easy to navigate.

Edsby and Google Classroom are two entirely different services, yet they can be used together with increased learning effectiveness as the result. When used in tandem, they combine the best features of both platforms and blend them together to get the best learning platform possible.

Moodle Rooms is a free platform but involves the need to be computer savvy. It is easy to use as well as SchoolSpeak. However, SchoolSpeak does have a direct communication platform with parents something that Moodle does not currently offer. This itself is a huge competitive advantage. The comparison then becomes, would you like to do less work but purchase SchoolSpeak, or do more work using multiple platforms but they are free. The SchoolSpeak platform does offer much more for the investment. Longer term and with full school integration, the investment is worth it. If you were to mandate using a platform, it should be SchoolSpeak because there are fewer risks associated with having to coach and education teachers, and less risk of complaints.

Incentivized

• Better customer service, in the sense that students know clearly what they need to do, and when they need to do it.
• Better customer service, in that it is easier for teachers to contact parents, with the lap top in front of them and all the relevant data on student progress or lack thereof in front of them.
• Better customer service, in that students can email the teacher directly through EDSBY to ask a question or see clarification, or make a request.

• Positively speaking, it has a positive ROI. Although expensive, the platform does solve issues that we as educators have in giving parents daily information about their child in school. It is difficult to email all parents or call all parents, but a one-click platform really saves time and is worth the investment.
• Negatively, there is a cost associated, and therefore, sometimes teachers can be given more work instead of buying a platform like this. Using other free tools could be more time consuming but cheaper.
• Using School Speak we have seen parent involvement increase.

Incentivized