Reflections+EDLD5362

 **EDLD 5362 Information Systems Management** As I reflect on this course’ assignment of the evaluation of our local Student Information System (SIS) I learned many positive things about our system. Both administrators that I talked with agree that our SIS system is an inclusive system that provides user-friendly access on both the financial side and the student data side of the system. Our district uses Skyward as our SIS and we have been using it since the fall of 2004, the cost to date of the system including annual maintenance fees is approximately $360,000.00. There are two sections to our SIS, the Student System and the Financial System. The Student System includes Student Management, Health Records, Disciplinary Records, and PEIMS Reporting and we will start using the Parent Portal this coming school year. The Financial System includes Fixed Assets, PIEMS Reporting for Finance, Payroll, Employee Management, ACH-Direct Deposit and Salary Negotiations. Skyward ensures that our district complies with both the state law requirements and the federal requirement of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Taking into consideration the information provided by the district office manager, the technology director and the experience I have as a teacher in using the SIS I will have to concur with them that the system is inclusive and user-friendly. In my experience, the SYS allows teachers to easily post attendance, review student profiles, add assignments and grade them, post the final grades in a six-week period, and generate many reports among other features. Though I do believe that Skyward is an expensive Student Information System, I have to agree with both administrators that the benefits of having Skyward as our Student Information System outweigh the cost of the product and their service. It is interesting to see both the office manager and technology director perspectives of the system. The office manager is concerned mainly about the financial section and mentioned how Skyward personnel are able to respond quickly to any trouble regarding payroll for example. Yet he had little knowledge on the support provided for the student section of the system. The technology director focused more on the student section of the system and informed me about the future use of the parent portal, the reports that we can generate, and the need to ensure teachers were keeping up with weekly and preferably daily assignment grades. As a teacher, I agree with the technology director’s concern regarding teachers inputting grades in a regular basis especially once the parent portal is in full function. When I asked other teacher their opinions regarding Skyward the consensus among the teachers was that it was an efficient way to record student grades and daily attendance. They feel it provides them with a quick access to the students’ demographics and parent contact numbers. Overall, Skyward appears to be a complete system that addresses the needs of our district and provides us a simple and user-friendly product. “In order to turn a body of data into useful information for knowledge-based decision-making at any level, it must be collected, organized, analyzed, and reflected upon.” ( Hartley & Almuhaidib, 2007 ). In my opinion, Skyward provides us with a means to collect and organize data thus allowing us to analyze and take action. The questions I have relate the use of Skyward or another Information System as a learning tool for our students. Will Skyward to able to provide students with the opportunity to learn through enhanced educational software? Can this be accomplished in the near future?     


 * Reference:**

 Hartley, R., & Almuhaidib, S. (2007). User oriented techniques to support interaction and  decision making with large educational databases. Computers and Education, 48(2), 268–  284.