The high school that I am currently working at uses two separate digital systems for data management. The school uses both Aeries and EDU 2.0 as data management systems.
EDU 2.0 is a new data management system that teachers are still getting used to. Teachers have access to online grading systems, rubric designers, classroom organizers, etc. The tool keeps academic information of students well organized and easily accessible. Teachers or administrators can login to EDU 2.0, search for a student and have their academic information and recent history instantly. Teachers can get a broader perspective on a students academic behaviors.
Aeries is filled with a different type of information. Teachers can login to Aeries for attendance records, discipline or behavior issues, family information and background, medical history, test scores, interventions, etc. Teachers can use Aeries to gain a deeper and more insightful perspective on a student.
The school I am at also still uses cumulative files for their students that can be accessed in a specific room and can be browsed through.
In order to gain a more holistic understanding of my students, it would be interesting to see more of an academic history. In a world of technology, it would be interesting if student's work from previous classes could be accessed. If writing samples from years past could be seen, a more complete understanding of the evolution of the student's writing abilities could be attained. This would give me as a teacher a better idea of how far the student has come, and where his or her strengths and weaknesses are.
It could also be helpful to know more about students and their lives. It would be helpful to know what they do outside of school, for example, do they have jobs, or are they involved in extracurriculars, etc. This poses a problem for me though. While it would be awesome to be able to click a button and just have all this information in front of me, that would delete a large part of human contact. As teachers, we want to be able to connect with our students and learn information about them. If we already knew all the information, there would be less need to seek out students to make those one on one connections. There would be less need to interact with our students in a non-academic context.
Yet, there is also the argument that, as teachers, we have too many students to effectively make those one on one connections with. I don't have the answer, but I do know that it's important to get to know students and interact with them in more than just an academic setting.
