Talya's designs and sketches

Design 1:
Ms. Frizzle signs in to ConnectEd, navigates to her 3rd grade page, and goes to create a new permission form (aforementioned steps not shown in sketch).  When she has reached the page to create a parental permission form, she enters a form title.  She then has the option of either typing the text of the form on the website, or uploading a file from her computer.  She can then preview the form or send it to all the parents of the students in the class.

When Arnold's mother signs in to ConnectEd, she sees that there is a form for her to sign, so she goes to it (not shown).  Once she is on the form page, she sees the permission slip from Ms. Frizzle.  She checks the box to grant permission for Arnold to go ice skating, enters her name, and clicks the submit button.

Finally, Ms. Frizzle returns to ConnectEd to see which parents have viewed the form.  She can go to the ice skating permission slip page where she can see a list of parents who have not yet responded as well as a list of parents who have responded and the date they signed the form.  She can also view the form she sent.  In addition, she can resend the form either to individual parents who have not yet signed, or to all parents who have not yet signed.

Design 2:
In this design, the teacher uses the website to create and send the permission slips, but the parents can see and sign the permission slips easily, straight from their own email. 
On the ConnectEd website, Ms. Frizzle goes to the page that allows her to send out a permission slip.  This page is designed to look like an email editor both to improve learnability and to allude to the fact that the parents will receive an email. 
Ms. Frizzle specifies who the form should be sent to.  She may specify any combination of classes and parents.  (If she puts "3rd grade" in the "To" field, for example, the form will be sent to the parents of all students in her 3rd-grade class.)  She can either type in the names of the classes or parents to whom she would like to send the permission slip, or she can use her address book to find the people she wants. 
In addition, she can "cc" the form to others.  People who are cc'ed will view the form but will not need to sign it.  This may be useful, for example, if Ms. Frizzle wants to send the permission slip to the principal to remind him about when her class's field trip is. 
Ms. Frizzle enters a subject line and types her permission slip.  She then can send, save as a draft, or cancel.

Arnold's mother (and all other parents of Ms. Frizzle's 3rd-grade students) receives an email as shown in this sketch.  The part of the email that is marked off with the arrow has been added automatically by ConnectEd.  Arnold's mother can easily either respond to the email with "approve" or "not approve," or she can click on the appropriate link to allow Arnold to go ice skating or to indicate that she does not wish for him to participate in the activity.

Design 3: 
This design was a "stretch;" it was designed for illiterate parents (but literate teachers).   
This sketch shows the teacher's page when the teacher, Ms. Frizzle, creates a permission slip.  Ms. Frizzle selects one of the classes she teaches from the drop-down menu. She then enters the title of the activity or event.  Note that the purpose of entering the title is only for the teacher's reference when she wants to return to the form later (for example, to see which parents have given permission for their children to go ice skating).  After entering the title of the activity or event (in words), Ms. Frizzle selects a picture that will be displayed to the parents to show what the children will be doing.  Ms. Frizzle can either choose this picture from an existing library of images on the website, or she can upload her own picture from her computer.  Ms. Frizzle enters the date of the activity (either by typing in the date or pressing the "select date" button which will bring up a calendar from which she can choose a date).  Finally, she clicks "send" to send the form to all parents of students in the relevant class (or she may press "cancel").

This sketch shows the parent's view of the permission slip.  When Arnold's mother goes to the website to view the permission slip, she sees a photograph of her child, Arnold, with an arrow pointing to a picture of the activity that Arnold's class will be doing: ice skating.  A calendar shows today's date and the date of the activity.  Next, there is a button with a volume icon which Arnold's mother can press to hear an (automatically-generated) audio recording of the information included in this permission slip.  She then presses the check button to approve for Arnold to participate in the activity, or the 'x' button to not allow Arnold to participate.

Design 4:
This design is another "stretch." It was designed for a tiny screen interface.
The teacher signs in to ConnectEd and clicks on a button to create a new permission slip (not shown).  On the page for creating a permission slip, she selects the class from a drop-down menu, enters the name of the activity, and enters the date.  She can then press "send" or "cancel."

When the parent logs in to ConnectEd and clicks to view the new permission slip, she sees a short explanation of what will happen (which class, what activity, and what date), and she may click a button to allow or not allow her child to participate, or she may cancel in order to not choose either option yet.