10 reasons why Storypark sets educators up with individual account logins

 Storypark was created with the intention of educators having individual logins. We designed individual logins to support the following:

  • Building an online professional relationship is paramount in this day and age. In Storypark this consists of a profile photo and name so parents, family and other educators can tell who posted something or authored the story about their child
  • Each educator is able to utilise the educator’s portfolio space for the individual collection and recording of Professional Learning and Development certificates notes and reflections, goal setting, evidence towards appraisal, mentoring, inductions, reflective stories, or their own work. When they leave their current centre their work can then travel with them
  • Managers, head office, mentors, or Room leaders can monitor activity and support individual educators use of Storypark. This helps to celebrate the champions or easily know who requires support in assessment writing, responses, or engagement with families
  • The reporting function of Learning Trends and Child Activity can be used effectively to monitor the number of stories, curriculum, learning outcomes and ensure all educators are utilising learning tags well
  • Conversations consisting of resources sharing, information sharing, mentoring, feedback etc in Storypark can be had with individual teachers. 
  • When parents respond to their child’s learning story, the author will be notified so they can read the response to their story and acknowledge the comments. If you have a shared login who checks this and makes sure the message gets to the correct educator, so there is a timely response?

Why shared logins are problematic from a Storypark Tech perspective:

  • When something is deleted or something nefarious is done under that login we are unable to tell the centre whodunnit if we look at log entries
  • If two or more people are logged into the same account at the same time it increases the risk of work being lost (i.e. two people having the same Story editor open at the same time)
  • If Storypark is asked to investigate or trace something we can’t trace who does what, that also means we can’t stop anyone who has access without stopping everyone’s access. We’re frequently asked in audits as to whether we allow or support shared logins as it’s a risk. In regions where privacy laws are strict, it’s actually a considered liability to not be able to trace who did what
  • If your centre has set up with shared/room login for security reasons they need to change the account password each time someone who had access to the group account leaves

We know that some centres have created group logins to support the co-creation of stories with multiple voices and this is something we have been discussing here at Storypark. We’re working towards improving the process of creating stories, making it easier to collaborate with others and bring individual perspectives together. This is a big project that involves modernising the tools that are at the heart of Storypark, but we’re excited about all the improvements that are coming. So watch this space.

If your centre operates using shared logins and you wish to change (and we highly recommend you do) to individual logins please don’t hesitate to contact us at hello@storypark.com to support you with this process.

 

Posted by Sharon Carlson

Sharon's early years were supported at home by her Mum in Taranaki. She later became an ECE ICT facilitator for CORE Education, and then Storypark. Sharon has successfully supported the implementation of a diverse range of ICT products and services around the country and is helping make sure Storypark is awesome for teachers and children's development.


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