I have begun experimenting with the Attendance app. The Android Attendance app is free, however it appears you will have to pay a small fee if you own an iPhone. I can record students’ absences and late arrivals from my Android phone. After I hit submit on my phone, their attendance is documented clearly in a Google spreadsheet.

A drawback is that I cannot re-check how I entered their absences once I hit submit from my phone because the App screen refreshes. To double-check the entering of absences, I have to go to my Google spreadsheet.

I am becoming more comfortable with the Attendance app. I believe I will continue to use it in the future rather than my paper attendance book.

The setting up process
It is not intuitive to set up. I used this video to help guide me through the process.

First, you need to set up a Google Spreadsheet:

1. Go to Google Docs (Create New > Spreadsheet > Save). I learned it is easier to import the file if the file name is lower-cased and simple
2. Add student names in the left column (two columns for first and last names).
3. Add Absent Totals and Late Totals to the top third and fourth column

After you set up the Google Doc, set up your App on your phone:

1. Download the Attendance App
2. Add class
3. You will need to link your case sensitive spreadsheet to your phone
4. Enter the display name
5. If you have more than one column for names, you should select two columns
6. If you mark a student as absent, and the individual shows up later, go to the students’ name and long-press the name to change the person from absent to late

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