With many students in the possession of iPads and numerous teachers on Twitter, it is clear that technology has altered school curriculums. Elk Grove has embraced the change and now uses Naviance to help students with their college search.
Naviance allows students to research colleges, create resumes and check their application status while allowing teachers to submit letters of recommendation.
“Everything gets to the colleges instantly instead of having to worry about it going through the mail and taking a long time or possibly getting lost,” college/career center assistant Steven Quaglia said.
Hersey and Prospect began using Naviance last year and had success. So as a counseling department, Elk Grove decided to also make the switch.
“Most [colleges] don’t even have a paper application now,” Quaglia said.
It only makes sense to go electronic if that is what colleges are doing. Although it takes a little getting used to, Naviance ultimately speeds up the application process. For example, teachers can view students’ resumes when writing letters of recommendation and then directly upload those letters to Naviance.
New concepts are always challenging at first. Senior Jacqueline Tubbs was a little frustrated with the new idea.
“My teachers had no idea what was going on, but I’m sure once they get used to it, it will be easier for future years,” Tubbs said.
After getting the hang of things, feedback from teachers was mainly positive. Elk Grove intends on using Naviance in the future, which will make it even easier for teachers since they are already used to the system.
“This was a huge step to digitize everything,” Quaglia said.
While it was indeed a huge step, Naviance is not perfect. Students have had issues with information not being up to date and have also struggled trying to navigate around the site.
“I appreciate that the school is trying to be more modern, but until Naviance is more user-friendly, I think it’ll just cause confusion during a time with so many important and strict deadlines,” Tubbs said.
Although it may seem inconvenient now, Quaglia believes it is making a positive difference.
“It will only get easier is what I anticipate,” Quaglia said.
By Taylor Brown