Teacher dashboard (by Hapara) is one of the most painful "learning management" systems out there. Yeah, even worse than the pain of Schoology. I guess it's not quite fair to compare two online school tools of a different sort, though. I don't care. It's worse.
Teacher dashboard's got this interesting idea. The teacher can see what the kids are doing so that they can "Participate directly with students through the browser" as the chrome webstore claims. Only one problem: that's not what it's used for. If you look closer, the features it proudly present are listed as "Open and close web pages on student devices... Priority message students... Take snapshots of student screens". That doesn't sound quite right. Why would you need to take pictures of the kid's screens if you are just using it to help along kids who are having trouble? One review by student Nicholas Huchthausen shows off the clear answer. "One of my teachers uses this correctly. The rest are usually unfair and somewhat abusive. They use it as a threat... 'If you're playing a game I will take a screen shot and email it to your parents,' is something that comes up often." That isn't quite what all of the enigmatic teacher reviewers say. Nicholas Huchthausen also brings up another great point: "this is now on my home computer, because it is an "owned extension" on the Google Account my school has given me. Since I have to log in to this account on my home computer to access my Google Docs, the extension is automatically downloaded onto my computer. Since I "don't have permission to remove this extension", I can't get it off of my home computer! This is an invasion of privacy rights..." Yeah, you read that right. He can't get it off of his HOME COMPUTER. Other reviewers state the same thing, saying things like "Because I am forced to use the same account for school and home, This is also on my home computer which makes me uncomfortable." and "I see this on my home computer and can't disable it on my account. It gives me the big brother is watching feel."
Even if you like the idea, you probably won't like the interface. "Hapara is genuinely a good tool, but poorly designed and even more poorly executed, similar to the chrome(crap)books. Basically, either teachers abuse the Hapara system, or they don't use it. It's that simple. Hapara is a waste of time and money."
Teacher love it, though. An example of this is this teacher who totally needs to be teaching america's youth, based on that awesome spelling. "This is a grate way to interact with students. Also if there not doing work and playing games behind your back you can close there tab and send them a message" Thanks, Israel "How do I synonym" Flores! Their, there and they're really seem to be your strong suit. I love the "playing games behind your back" bit. It really shows how little teacherss are able to trust their students to have good sense.
Here's the kicker: It makes your students trust you less. "A teacher requirement is to trust your students. Then the students will trust you," says "def master" which is probably not his real name. It reminds me of the awkward constant supervision in schools. The idea of leaving a student alone to help them get more used to managing theirselves, like they will have to as adults with jobs.