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Show I Page Eight - The Springville Herald - January 5, 1994 Computerized attendance technology By Dane Allred Teachers at Payson High School take attendance with their computer. Part of the Nebo Education Edu-cation Association, each classroom class-room has been equipped with a computer and access to a central server. Using the School Administrative Admin-istrative Student Information (SASI) program by MACRO Educational Systems, teachers can mark roll on the screen, change absences to tardies if a student shows up late, and even correct for excused absences. Classroom grades and term grades can also be reported through the individual terminals. A powerful tool for tracking attendance, students can be shown their attendance record on the screen right at the teacher's desk. The computerized attendance atten-dance program replaced a weekly bubble-sheet system that required reading the sheets each day. Teachers were marking roll-sheets roll-sheets and handing them in every day, only to have them returned after scanning the marks and being sorted for remarking in the next class period. The new system has eliminated the sheet processing problem. Now the school attendance secretary secre-tary can concentrate on correcting attendance rolls and entering activity excused lists. It has eliminated constant paper shuffling. shuf-fling. Diana Steele, attendance secretary, commented, "We used to spend hours each day moving papers through the scanner to be recorded, re-sorted by teacher and returning the rolls to the teacher's box." Teachers no longer have to worry about lost scan sheets, or about picking up the roll sheets each day. "After a few keystrokes, the teacher has a current roll sheet on the computer in front of them," she said. "I just printed my class rolls, and I know they are current," says Dave McKee, Japanese teacher at the school. "If I want to mark the sheet instead of standing at the computer, I can enter my attendance later. Also the rolls are always current for that day, so students who have transferred out aren't being marked absent." Principal Ron Hitchcock, a member of the Nebo Education Association, worked hard this fall to make sure computer lines were installed in each classroom. Former principal Cary Bailey had the foresight to order computers for each room before leaving for administrative duties at the district dis-trict office. Training by principal Hitchcock Li . I ''""IB tliini nun II Iriiiiii mi xtrSV-tw in nnri-tmii 1 ""- ; Dane Allred, president of the Nebo Education Association and ; teacher at Payson High School, is shown above working on the computer that has been installed in his classroom. Each teacher at PHS keeps track of attendance on a computer in their room. Secondary schools in Springville are looking at the efficient program but lack funds to get computers in each classroom at the present time. took place during preparation periods. After one session, the teachers in the school were online on-line and marking rolls by computer. com-puter. A follow-up session by the principal after school showed some of the advanced features of the system. These include accessing access-ing student records, student schedules, teacher schedules, teaching class loads and electronic electron-ic mail. "Teachers now have more information about the student stu-dent and other teachers classes right at their fingertips than ever before", said Steve Taylor, member mem-ber and counselor at the school. "Before, they had to wait for us to find the information, either during their preparation period or before or after school. Now if teachers want a student's phone number and parent's name, they can access that information through a program called CHOICES right in their own classroom at their convenience. We can also offer students career information at dozens of workstations work-stations now instead of just here in the counseling center." Even older teachers who are rumored to fight technology and change are enthusiastic about the system. Francis Christensen, a member with over 29 years experience expe-rience has used the system to mark roll and check on student information. He even sends electronic elec-tronic mail to other teachers, checking on their programs for the school newspaper. "It has opened up a whole new ability for us in the classroom. We can use our time more productively than in the past", he commented. Student access to the computers is a concern at the school, so the students who have access to the system are closely monitored. Not only do teachers have passwords pass-words to enter the system, but they can change these passwords if they suspect others know it. Assistant principal Scott Wilson, also an administrative member of the Nebo Education Association, has even developed some special uses for students in connection with the program. "Some of the students who are having attendance atten-dance problems get a first-hand look at the fact we track attendance", atten-dance", he said. , "I've transferred one of our at-risk at-risk students into the office as an aide to help update rolls," said Mr. Wilson. "After I get the program ready, I have her read the corrections to a secretary who enters the corrections. I think jshe's getting the message that most of the students here attend classes. Maybe it will rub off." Dane Allred, local President of the Nebo Education Association indicates that this is exactly what is happening with this particular student. "She asked to see her attendance for the term, and after a few keystrokes, her record was on the screen," he explained. '-'She knew how to read the screen for absences and tardies, and since she had been tardy to my class that day, and she had been marked absent. She told me I needed to change her absence to a tardy. It wasn't 20 seconds before she had found that mistake. mis-take. . I know she now has a heightened awareness of her attendance." ; The local president also commented com-mented on the other benefits of having a computerized attendance program. "Not only can I mark the roll on the screen, but after recording that, I can go to a word-processing program and work on study sheets. It gives me the power of having access dur ing class and my preparation to state of the art productivity tools." Springville High school and Junior High School do no have this program at the present time. 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