HomeworkNOW, found here at http://www.homeworknow.com/, is a web application that enables school staff members to communicate important school announcements and classroom information rapidly and effectively across multiple lines of media with their entire community of students, parents, alumni, and other concerned users.
This web application offers multiple methods of "push" communication. Although teachers and administrators will only have to make their updates one time throughthe HomeworkNow web platform, the interested parents and students can receive this information in many different ways. Here are some of the forms of communication offered by HomeworkNOW:
- Online web portal powered and hosted by HomeworkNOW (essentially, a website)Interestingly, the HomeworkNOW website boasts that their web portal would be easier to find than a school district's URL. I see both tasks as being rather easy, with perhaps the activity of digging for your own school and teacher pages within the HomeworkNOW portal being a little more cumbersome.
- SMS (Text) Messaging
- IPhone/Android Apps
- RSS feed
- Twitter- Facebook
- Desktop Pop-ups- Embed codes offered, which will allow the school administrators to post that info on their own websites and various other web-based school resources
Teacher accounts for HomeworkNOW are not exactly FREE, but the accounts are affordable for entire schools looking to increase/enhance communication with parents and students. It appears that a school-wide account (where every teacher and administrator will have their own unique username and password to update their "pages") is about $400.00 per year. Individual teacher accounts can be purchased for $40.00 per year. NOTE: Accounts for PTA/PTO organizations are free.
HomeworkNOW does NOT create some sort of unique, individualized website or web portal for each school - let alone, each teacher - that uses the service. Every school and every teacher with a HomeworkNOW account logs-in to the same website - www.HomeworkNOW.com - to access their software and make updates to school announcements, homework assignments, and/or any other relevant news they would like to relay. As a comparison, every user logs-in to the very same Facebook portal to update their status, upload pictures, and perform all their usual Facebook activities. In the same way, teachers and administrators would not log-in to a unique account that represents only their school. Every teacher (and, thus, every participating school) logs-in to the same HomeworkNOW site.
e (or, at least I could not find it), the screen-shots they provide show a very nice GUI interface that appears intuitive and easy to manage. Here is a screen-shot of the admin software that teacher use to make updates:
One thing worth mentioning is that I do not believe that the HomeworkNOW software really contains software "applications" - like a Calendar feature, or Homework feature (with "Due Dates"pages similar features). HomeworkNOW pages are updated via a WYSIWYG editor. WYSIWYG editors are great, but when a software application boasts of a WYSIWYG editor, it usually signifies the lack of a well-defined web app. When a software application has a WYSIWYG editor, it usually implies that the user begins with a blank web page, and then the user can use easy, MS Word-type features to add text, pictures and other content. I do not say this as a judgement against the software, but I think some less technologically savvy users might appreciate a structured, organized web app that guides the user through form fields and drop-down menus to make structured updates.
The front-end of the HomeworkNOW web portal - that is, the website where parents and students will go to see their school's and teachers' updated announcements and homework assignments - is template-based. So, every teacher pages will look and feel the same. They do offer different templates dependent on the subject area. For example, there is a "Math Template" and a "Science Template." However, those different template still generally look the same. Here is a screen-shot of one of those front-end template pages:
Once a teacher creates a HomeworkNOW account, I believe the template-based web page can be viewed by any parent or student with a HomeworkNOW username. Similar to Facebook, parents and students who want to access their teacher pages - no matter where the participating teachers and schools are - all go the same website at www.myhomeworknow.com. In other words, teacher pages are NOT private - meaning that students and parents with no relation to your school could view your class information if they would like to. I do not think this should cause a point of concern because there is nothing truly sensitive that is being posted on this website (i.e. grades, attendance), but some teacher might not want their homework assignments open for the public to see.
Even though the front-end piece is all template-based and offers little with regards to design customization and personality, it truly does not take away from the power of the application, which is ability for the parent or the student to receive important announcements and class updates through many different forms of media. To use HomeworkNow to it's fullest extent, parents and students need to create their own user account on My.homeworkNow.com. Once students and parents Decide to "follow" a teacher or a school, they can then decide to get updates via email, text messages, Facebook, and other forms of online communication.
Advantages: I'm very bull-ish on the idea of providing parents and students with the ability to receive all types communication from the school administrators and teachers in the method the receiver finds the most convenient. For example, if a parent prefers to receive email alerts of her daughter's homework assignments as opposed to logging on the HomeworkNOW website everyday, then the parent can do exactly that. Even households without reliable Internet access are accounted for since text messaging is a method of communication offered by HomeworkNOW.
Providing an invaluable tool, HomeworkNOW helps schools bridge the communication gap between the classroom and the home. With so many options to receive the information, parents and students cannot help But stay informed.
Disadvantages: Of course, this software is not free, but I felt it suitable to review because it is very cheap for both school-wide accounts and individual teacher accounts. I doubt you could ever find a truly free service that allows for multiple forms of "push" communications like this does. So, I believe HomeworkNOW is definitely worth reviewing.
Right now, the front-end teacher pages offered by HomeworkNOW leave a lot to be desired. I think this actually might turn below off quickly. These HomeworkNOW pages are all template-based, and they do not provide many features that would be very useful of teachers, like Photo Albums, Calendars, a little database of links, and other apps. I think HomeworkNOW would be much improved if they created a nicer front-end display of the teacher web pages. If there myhomeworknow.com site offered teacher portals that look and behaved more like TeacherWeb (or a similar teacher pages type of software), then I do not think there would be a comparable software service out there for the price.
One thing worth mentioning is that I do not believe that the HomeworkNOW software really contains software "applications" - like a Calendar feature, or Homework feature (with "Due Dates"pages similar features). HomeworkNOW pages are updated via a WYSIWYG editor. WYSIWYG editors are great, but when a software application boasts of a WYSIWYG editor, it usually signifies the lack of a well-defined web app. When a software application has a WYSIWYG editor, it usually implies that the user begins with a blank web page, and then the user can use easy, MS Word-type features to add text, pictures and other content. I do not say this as a judgement against the software, but I think some less technologically savvy users might appreciate a structured, organized web app that guides the user through form fields and drop-down menus to make structured updates.The front-end of the HomeworkNOW web portal - that is, the website where parents and students will go to see their school's and teachers' updated announcements and homework assignments - is template-based. So, every teacher pages will look and feel the same. They do offer different templates dependent on the subject area. For example, there is a "Math Template" and a "Science Template." However, those different template still generally look the same. Here is a screen-shot of one of those front-end template pages:
Once a teacher creates a HomeworkNOW account, I believe the template-based web page can be viewed by any parent or student with a HomeworkNOW username. Similar to Facebook, parents and students who want to access their teacher pages - no matter where the participating teachers and schools are - all go the same website at www.myhomeworknow.com. In other words, teacher pages are NOT private - meaning that students and parents with no relation to your school could view your class information if they would like to. I do not think this should cause a point of concern because there is nothing truly sensitive that is being posted on this website (i.e. grades, attendance), but some teacher might not want their homework assignments open for the public to see.
Even though the front-end piece is all template-based and offers little with regards to design customization and personality, it truly does not take away from the power of the application, which is ability for the parent or the student to receive important announcements and class updates through many different forms of media. To use HomeworkNow to it's fullest extent, parents and students need to create their own user account on My.homeworkNow.com. Once students and parents Decide to "follow" a teacher or a school, they can then decide to get updates via email, text messages, Facebook, and other forms of online communication.
Advantages: I'm very bull-ish on the idea of providing parents and students with the ability to receive all types communication from the school administrators and teachers in the method the receiver finds the most convenient. For example, if a parent prefers to receive email alerts of her daughter's homework assignments as opposed to logging on the HomeworkNOW website everyday, then the parent can do exactly that. Even households without reliable Internet access are accounted for since text messaging is a method of communication offered by HomeworkNOW.
Providing an invaluable tool, HomeworkNOW helps schools bridge the communication gap between the classroom and the home. With so many options to receive the information, parents and students cannot help But stay informed.
Disadvantages: Of course, this software is not free, but I felt it suitable to review because it is very cheap for both school-wide accounts and individual teacher accounts. I doubt you could ever find a truly free service that allows for multiple forms of "push" communications like this does. So, I believe HomeworkNOW is definitely worth reviewing.
Right now, the front-end teacher pages offered by HomeworkNOW leave a lot to be desired. I think this actually might turn below off quickly. These HomeworkNOW pages are all template-based, and they do not provide many features that would be very useful of teachers, like Photo Albums, Calendars, a little database of links, and other apps. I think HomeworkNOW would be much improved if they created a nicer front-end display of the teacher web pages. If there myhomeworknow.com site offered teacher portals that look and behaved more like TeacherWeb (or a similar teacher pages type of software), then I do not think there would be a comparable software service out there for the price.
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