I’m probably late on this, but, courtesy of a blog post from Mr Fraser Henderson, I’ve spotted Rate My Teachers, a crowdsourced site that allows kids to, as the name suggests, rate their teachers.
Pupils get the opportunity to rate their teachers based on easiness, helpfulness, clarity and popularity, as well as give a bit of a comment on the teacher themselves.
After posting up on Twitter about this, @paulocanning pointed out that it wasn’t well-liked by teachers, and it’s blocked by most school web filters. I can kind of see their reasoning, but I think schools are missing a trick.
OK, yeah, kids can sometimes be cruel, but sometimes, they can also have insight and, at the end of the day (as much as schools might claim otherwise), they’re receiving a service. Why not embrace this technology (and moderate it, the site gives people the opportunity to apply to be moderators) and give pupils the opportunity to give feedback on the service they receive? Obviously, you’ll get a few nasty comments, but these can be deleted by the moderator.
And, besides, even if Rate my teachers is blocked at school, (as pointed out by @pigsonthewing) kids have internet at home and on their mobile phones, so what’s to stop them using those channels? Why not embrace it, rather than ignore it and (shock, horror!) treat the kids like adults? You’ll get the kind of insight and feedback that a million school inspectors couldn’t provide.
(It’d be nice if it had an API though)
