We live in a digital age and the term digital literacy is a new phrase. The term means the ability to navigate, use, evaluate, communicate and understand information online or in a digital format. While schools, particularly preschools and childcare centers, still rely heavily on traditional paper and print materials, there are many advantages to using digital materials at your preschool, specifically digital attendance records.
Digital attendance is fast, easy to use, simple to locate, and convenient. It also provides added security, reduces paperwork, and provides accurate real-time data for parents and schools.
Benefits of Digital Attendance
Fast, Accurate, & Easy – Digital attendance is easy and fast for teachers or parents to use. Typically with the push of a few buttons or less, a child is signed in with an accurate time and date stamp.
Some styles require parents to enter a passcode to sign their child in and out of school, while others rely on teachers to press a button to log the child’s attendance.
As soon as the child is checked in, an instant visual cue alerts staff to the child’s attendance in the classroom. Preschool programs that use photo IDs as part of their digital attendance are beneficial, especially for teachers who are subbing and may not be familiar with the children present.
Digital attendance makes it possible to keep records on file indefinitely and makes it easy for teachers or staff to quickly locate a specific date when needed. It is also much easier to fix and edit digital attendance records when mistakes are made.
Reduces Paperwork – Digital literacy of any type reduces paperwork. Reduction of paperwork cuts down on bulk and busy work and saves time! The Bounce app also offers auto check in and check out times for teachers to activate for fixed hour students.
Reducing paperwork also saves overhead costs and frees you and your staff up to focus on more important duties!
Extra Security – Digital attendance provides extra security. It is much easier for someone to lose a piece of paper or a notebook than an iPad or a phone they keep directly on their person. Plus, with digital attendance, all data is secured in the cloud or wifi database your system uses.
Digital attendance also encrypts your student and their families’ data keeping it safe and secure.
It provides secure, real-time tracking of arrivals and departures. In fact, many systems alert parents via email or text if their child is picked-up; that way, if there is any confusion, they can contact the school to verify if their child was indeed picked-up, by whom or if it was an error. If in case of absence, the Bounce app sends a message to parents with a greeting and asking about their child.
Mobile – In most cases, teachers can use a digital attendance app from a tablet or cell phone, making it portable and less bulky than traditional paper sign-in sheets. Although it is still recommended you have a system to record daily attendance on paper as a backup- should the system go down or your school loses wifi temporarily.
In most cases, you can recycle paper attendance at the end of the day or week once the data is stored digitally.
A mobile, digital attendance system makes it easy for teachers to take it with them to the playground, rec room, down the hallway to the art supply closet, or wherever else they need to travel with their class in tow!
Digital attendance offers so many perks for preschools. Preschools are busy, messy, fun, and energetic places, and offering the option makes things easier for your staff and families.
