Technology is sweeping American high schools by introducing students with emails, academic accounts, and in-class use of laptops, iPads and tablets.

Students were issued a Naviance.com account username and password on picture day this year. Mr. Sean Begley, Freshman Center Principal, is speaking out to help students grasp the importance and help Naviance can provide.

“Naviance is kind of like a one-stop shop for many different things. It’s a communication tool between the school and the students. So, it’s kind of like that bulletin board in cyberspace that students can go and look at,” Mr. Begley said.

Through Naviance, counselors, administrators and eventually teachers will be able to contact students paperlessly with an efficient communicative process. According to Mr. Begley, students need to pay special attention to the college and career tabs on Naviance.

“You have four tabs [on the site]: College, Careers, About Me and Planner. The college [tab] is a big one. It’s where you can start researching different colleges. So, when you click on colleges you can start looking at the ones you’re thinking about and the ones you’re applying to. The Career [tab allows] you to look at the knowledge and skills you have to have for that [career]. You can also look at what the typical day is, the job description and then you can also look at wages,” Mr. Begley said.

The About Me tab combines elements found within the other three tabs while centralizing the information to the student. Counselors and administration can also distribute online surveys through the About Me tab to compile information quickly and efficiently.

“We really need people to go on there. You can either go to your email and check [Naviance] or go to your Naviance account and check your messages there,” Mr. Begley said.