BAIP Bulletin: Volume 3 Issue 5

Volume 3 Issue 5 - October 15th, 2009

Tech Updates

Why Do I have To Assign Parent Activities?
In the Volume 3, Issue 2, Tech Update of the BAIP Bulletin we described the technical ins and outs of setting up and using parent activities. In this edition of the Tech Update, we’ll move beyond merely explain “How” these activities are assigned, and explain “Why” the BAIP Parent Activities system is set up as it is.

Similar to assigning tutorials

Fig 1. Link to Assign Tutorials and Parent Activities

BAIP has always allowed teachers to assign tutorials to students. Teachers sign into their teacher accounts at the main BAIP site (http://baip.elearndesign.org/), click on the "My Content" tab at the top of the page, click the appropriate grade and curriculum area buttons on the left, and then browse through indicators until they find their desired content (Fig 1). To get tutorials to appear in their students' BAIP accounts teachers would click the "assign indicator" link under the "Assign" heading.

Parents need to find what's applicable to their learners

Fig 2. Assigning Tutorials and Parent Activities

Now when you click this "assign indicator" link you not only see boxes that allow you to assign tutorials, you also see blue boxes that allow you to assign parent activities (Fig 2.) What actually happens when you assign a parent Activity? Why do you need to assign them at all?

BAIP has created a large number of Parent Activities and parents need a way to wade through all these parent activities to find those that are applicable to their students. By assigning Parent Activities you do this wading for your parents. Just as tutorial assignment allows students to only deal with the tutorials that are applicable to them, parent activity assignment allows parents to immediately find the parent activities that are relevant to them. When your parents don't have to hunt for these supplementary resources, they're more likely to use them to work with your students.

Why aren't parent activities automatically assigned when tutorials are assigned?
While you will often want to make both tutorials and parent activities available to your students and parents, there are times when you'll want to assign one without the other. For example, you might cover a BAIP lesson and want your parents to have access to a related parent activity at home, but you don't want your students to take tutorials on the content. If parent activities could only be assigned indirectly by assigning tutorials, in this example you'd be forced to assign a tutorial you didn't want your students taking to get your parents access to the parent activity.

Why do parents have to set up their own accounts? Why not just automatically set up one parent account for every student?
A single parent account doesn't make sense for every student. Some parents will be happy to share a single parent account while others will prefer separate parental accounts for the same student. The issue of non-parents as primary care givers also confuses the situation. Grandparents, important friends-of-the-family, etc. might benefit from having access to parent activities but might be excluded from a system where parent accounts were automatically assigned. Finally, pushing the task of creating and upkeeping accurate parent accounts onto district staff might be too cumbersome for many districts.

If you encounter any technical problems with BAIP, know that if the solution takes a few minutes or a few conference calls, we’ll work with your district until BAIP works for you.

Thanks!
Thanks for using BAIP and helping us make BAIP better. Please feel free to contact me with your questions and comments. Have a fantastic day!

Dan Spurgin
BAIP Technical Assistance
spurgin@ku.edu
785-864-1039