Digital Journaling is the Future of Schooling

The Internet and digital technologies are becoming more and more confidently becoming an integral part of all spheres of life of a modern person. 

The education system was not an exception, in which electronic textbooks are gradually replacing ordinary books, and laptops and tablets are traditional notebooks. Students are now doing digital journaling for their ease and to cope up with the technological trends. A relatively solid position is still held by the paper version of the school diary. Many parents do not trust electronic magazines and are not aware of all its features and advantages.

And if we can’t do anything with the first without the intervention of the authorities and relevant authorities, then we can talk about the possibilities of the electronic diary in a state. That is why today we will try to answer the most common questions that worry parents about the electronic counterpart of a traditional performance journal.

What is a Digital Diary?

Digital diary - electronic services or software designed to provide:

• Accounting for the implementation of the curriculum by students (including attendance and academic performance);
• Awareness of all participants in the educational process (in particular, students and their parents) about the progress and results of training;
• Streamlining the workflow and reducing the administrative burden on educational organizations;
• The ability to create a portfolio of students and an internal social network, as well as maintaining a news feed of an educational organization and personal blogs of teachers.

Is Digital Journal and Digital Diary the Same?

In fact, this is the same electronic service, but with different capabilities.

• A digital journal is an accounting tool that allows you to monitor student performance and attendance, as well as fulfill the educational and pedagogical load, increase the ICT competency of school employees, accumulate and systematize teaching and learning experience, ensure transparency of the educational process, and inform all interested parties about the learning process.
• Electronic diary - an individualized selection of data from an electronic journal about the progress and results of training of a particular student. Both the student and his parents have access to the student’s personal “page”.
  
  

Why Do Parents Need a Digital Diary?

The introduction of digital diaries at school allows parents to:

• Have round-the-clock access to the most reliable, accurate and up-to-date information about the performance of your child (both from a PC and from a mobile phone);
• Receive timely information on the schedule of lessons and activities that are planned at the school;
• Operatively monitor the child's attendance at lessons and his behavior at school;
• Carry out interactive communication with teachers of the student and the administration of the educational organization.
  
  

Why Do Students Need It?

Thanks to the introduction of electronic diaries in most schools, students no longer need to worry that they forgot to write homework or changes in the schedule of subjects - just go to the page of a classy electronic journal and the most up-to-date information will be opened for the student. This is especially convenient for those students who, for one reason or another, missed classes at school. In addition, the electronic diary allows you to:

• Track your grades for any period of time;
• View grades by grade
• Be aware of both school life in general and class life in particular.
• Why do teachers need an electronic diary?
• For teachers, an electronic diary has become a good help in work. Using it you can:
• Communicate with students' parents and quickly solve current problems and tasks with them;
• Count student ratings
• generate reports on student performance;
• Track analytics of the work of a general educational organization in various areas;
• Communicate with colleagues on issues of professional activity and exchange of experience;
• Organize virtual consultations and additional classes.

How Reliable and Timely is this for everyone?

Here, again, a lot depends on the human factor. If a school the employee is responsible for his responsibilities in filling out an electronic journal, then participants in the educational process receive up-to-date and reliable information. Otherwise, grades may not fully reflect student achievement, and information about school activities may be outdated.

Unfortunately, we are forced to state that after studying various forums where parents share their impressions of electronic diaries. The question of filling out electronic diaries is negligent. And all because this responsibility was assigned either to subject teachers or to class teachers. Moreover, this obligation is not paid. Well, for teachers who already have enough work, they either have no time at all or just don’t want to regularly update information in the electronic journal.

Bottom Line

But not everything is as pessimistic as it might seem at first glance. Increasingly, the school management is hiring a specialist who is solely responsible for maintaining and filling school electronic resources. This fact allows us to hope that in the very near future in all electronic journals there will be only reliable and relevant information, and the electronic systems themselves will be reliably protected and safe.