Thehomeworksite.com Takes Blame Off the Dog.

Clarion Harold

By Peter Finney Jr.


     Ouch. No more excuses.

     "No longer can a student come in and say, 'I didn't know we had that for homework," said Weese Peterson, chairwoman of the computer department at The St. Paul's School in Covington. "'The dog ate my homework' doesn't work either."

     Peterson said the newest bane of slouching students everywhere is called thehomeworksite.com, which as its name implies, is a one-stop Internet address for up-to-date homework assignments from each teacher in the school.

     St. Paul's is among eight Catholic elementary and high schools in the Archdiocese of New Orleans to subscribe to the service, which posts daily, weekly and monthly homework tasks and also has options that provide school activities, bulletin boards and personal calendars.

     The Homework Site, with offices in Harahan, currently services more than 50 schools in a 15-state area, said Gene Becker, vice president of sales and marketing. Becker said the service has been a hit with teachers, students and parents; and schools like it because it saves the time and considerable expense it would take in designing a similar program on its own.

     "We've spent about a year and a half and a couple hundred thousand dollars developing it," Becker said. "Typically, it works as a link on the school's existing Web site. It incorporates the school's name and logo and looks like something the school itself put together. There is no advertising on it. We can offer a great level of sophistication."

     The site allows teachers to post their daily homework assignments for each class, a process that can take less than five minutes. There is also room for weekly and monthly assignments, links to educational materials on the Web, and handouts and homework sheets that can be printed out.

     The site allows access to students and parents through the use of a log-on id and password.

     "At the beginning of the year students or parents can take a few minutes of their time to create a profile of all their teachers and classes at school, " Becker said. "With one click of a button, you can see all the assignments from each teacher. You don't have to go back and forth from one teacher's Web page to the next. It makes it real easy on students and parents."

     Becker said the average annual cost per school for the homework service is about $1,000. He said one school in Baltimore told him the program improved overall student performance because students were missing fewer assignments.

     "Parents also like being clued in on what's going on with the child's homework," Becker said. "It's a nice, easy way for parents to keep tabs. They can log on at work or wherever their Internet access is and get a picture of what's going on."

     Local Catholic school subscribers to the service include St. Paul's, Mount Carmel Academy, Academy of the Sacred Heart, St. Christopher, Ascension of Our Lord, Holy Name of Jesus, St. Frances Cabrini and St. Pius X.

     "Basically, everybody loves it," said Andrew DiMaggio, technology coordinator at Ascension of Our Lord in LaPlace. "Parents are wild about it. Kids like to go online and find their homework. Some students who have had trouble getting their homework are now getting their homework and are getting it in on time."

     DiMaggio said there was some initial resistance on the part of teachers to use the computer to post their homework, but when the teachers find out how little time it takes to keep the assignments posted, they embrace it.

     "It's totally up to the teacher how the homework is posted," he said. "Some teachers do it every day, some do it every week and every month."

     DiMaggio said about 80 percent of Ascension's 500 students have computers at home. Those that don't can access the site through computers in the classroom, at friend's houses, libraries, or their parents' work.

     The minimal cost was very attractive to the school, DiMaggio said.

     "It would take a lot (of money) to do this kind of setup," DiMaggio said. "They've put a lot of work into it and there are a lot of features that we find beneficial. They've included a bulletin board feature for different announcements that we like. Our PTO liked it so much, it's picked up the cost for the next three years."

     St. Paul's has been using the system since January 2000, and Peterson said she "could go on forever" about its benefits.

     "The ease of information access is fabulous," she said. "The students have been accustomed to using plan books, but if they miss class or for some reason don't get the assignment, with one click on the Internet they get it. This has created an area of organization for the student. It's probably also helped the teachers stay organized and made it easier for them to manage a class list."

     Although the company suggested the program be voluntary for teachers at first, St. Paul's decided to mandate its use from the beginning.

     "For this one small area we felt it was important for teachers to do it," Peterson said. "We gave them six weeks to get used to it. We ran classes in the afternoon and pointed out the directions. It's so user-friendly that teachers who had not been successful in other areas (of technology) had an 'Oh, I can do this' feeling. You can't pay enough for that to happen. It's a wonderful thing."

     Peterson said the school is looking into the feasibility of posting grades on the site.

     "We're headed that way," she said.

     For students, just another flesh wound.