CEAB hosts ASPEN workshop for parents

Jen Cowart
Posted 11/20/14

As had been announced at the October meeting, the November meeting of the Cranston Education Advisory Board (CEAB) consisted of an in-depth presentation on the workings of the ASPEN computer program …

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CEAB hosts ASPEN workshop for parents

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As had been announced at the October meeting, the November meeting of the Cranston Education Advisory Board (CEAB) consisted of an in-depth presentation on the workings of the ASPEN computer program used by Cranston Public Schools for grading, attendance, announcements and more.

Orchard Farms Principal Kim Magnelli, one of the district’s ASPEN gurus, ran the workshop in the computer lab in the Cranston High School East Media Center.

The tutorial gave parents a glimpse into the program and the many benefits of its use for students, teachers and administrators, with Magnelli signing in as all three to show parents how the program differs for each and what types of features and benefits can be found. She answered questions along the way about the program’s capabilities and also addressed what’s ahead as the district continues to partner with ASPEN to further enhance the program capabilities specific to Cranston.

When logged in as a student, Magnelli showed features such as study guides, resources for projects and assignments, assignment postings and the ability for students to upload their assignments online through ASPEN.

“This information all depends on how much a teacher uses ASPEN, but students potentially have the ability to pull up what an assignment is, when it’s due, complete it, upload it, and it will auto-input it into the teacher’s grade book once the teacher looks at it,” Magnelli said. “It also shows grades on assignments, conduct grades and there is the ability to sign up to see notifications when things post like attendance and conduct. Under the ‘Academics’ tab, you can see all classes, the assignments, homework, quizzes and which assignments are done versus not done. There are also group pages for things like theater, scholarships and student council.”

The calendar feature on ASPEN is one Magnelli felt has not been utilized enough to this point.

“The calendar allows you to view classroom assignments with a due date which gets auto-input right onto the calendar, and you can add your own things like soccer games, for example,” she said.

Magnelli also explained the “Locker” feature, which many students may not realize exists.

“This is like a file cabinet,” she said. “Instead of using a thumb drive for storing documents, students can put them in their locker. It has a ‘Quest’ feature, which allows you to search, and you can save what you find in your quest in your locker.”

Magnelli went over how to set preferences and how to find the settings, which include information like passwords, email contacts and security questions. She logged in as a parent and went over several of the ASPEN capabilities specific to parents.

“It’s very similar to the student access, but you have some different tabs and you can view the information for all of the children in your family. You can pick a child’s information that you’d like to see and then view their assignments, conduct, grades, any notifications and assessments,” she said.

She also showed parents where to locate information about graduation and grade point averages by utilizing the “Transcript” tab.

For teachers and administrators, the program varies quite a bit, with use for basic information for classes, including conduct, attendance, schedules, assessments and notifications. Information for teachers regarding student IEPs, 504 alerts and medical alerts also exist.

“The staff can also see their own schedules, their calendar, planner, and they have a ‘Locker’ and ‘Quest’ function also,” she said.

She explained the benefit of ASPEN with regard to data.

“Data can be sorted, reports can be run, there is a module for special educators to write IEPs, and providers can log in their service time,” she said.

Magnelli said it is hoped that ASPEN will soon replace RIEPS, the current module for uploading the graduation portfolio information for students heading toward high school graduation, but it will not affect the students currently using RIEPS.

Joseph Rotz, the district’s executive director of educational programs and services, was also present for the workshop and alerted parents to the option of going to the “Tech Ticket” area on ASPEN where they can fill out a help request with their specific needs and it will be addressed by the tech team.

When asked by president Ed Angilly whether or not specific groups such as CEAB could have a page on ASPEN similar to the student council or scholarship pages already found on there, Rotz said yes and encouraged groups such as CEAB and PTO/PTA organizations to come together for future workshops.

“We can organize and host future parent workshops and show people how to create a page, so that they can have their own pages,” he said. “We can host additional professional development opportunities just like this for groups.”

Rotz also explained the caution that Cranston is exercising as the district reorganizes its technology to include ASPEN’s many capabilities.

“As a district, we are struggling with what we use ASPEN for and what we use the school web page for,” he said. “The more places we have information, the more places we then need to manage that information.”

The next meeting of CEAB will take place on Dec. 1 at Cranston High School West in the Meschanticut Room, which is in the Cranston Area Career and Technical Center building. Stephanie Geller will be presenting a workshop on Attendance Counts, a district-wide and nationwide attendance monitoring initiative aimed at raising the rates of student attendance in school.

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