Putting Learning Into Our Student's Hands...

In my last post, I tried to give you more insight into how Schoology works and some reviews from their page. Reading/hearing about another's experience with a program is very helpful, so I hope you took the time to see how it has worked in other districts and related it back to our own.

So, back to putting learning into the student's hands...Well, it is that easy with an LMS such as Schoology because they have created an app for smart phones and devices that can be downloaded for free! You've seen the students....they can't stand not checking their phones! With the creation of a Schoology app, students can get on to their login and access you class documents, grade, discussion boards, updates, etc. at the push of a button! There is no excuse for "not knowing" or "I didn't get it" because we have everything posted onto Schoology that we need our students to know. It is truly a win-win situation! Please visit Schoology's "mobile app" page to learn more! I just think we can't go wrong here!

With that said, I would like to share another story of a previous Moodle user and her experience with switching over to Schoology. Kay Solomon writes in her own blog and shares her travels through both programs. She felt that Moodle wasn't easy on the eyes and the amount of "steps" necessary to set things up was daunting, so she did some searching and found Schoology. She began using it with her classes and found it to be great. Kay writes, "The first thing students say when they see it is, 'It looks just like Facebook,' so the interface isn't unfamiliar to most students. But what's exciting is the capabilities for teachers." Her students reacted well to this change and felt at ease! Ours will too. She also shares a list of features she enjoys in this post on her blog....

• Create separate courses with the ability to copy assignments from one course to another with a click (not possible in Moodle)
• Generate course updates that automatically generates an email to each student registered for the course (no more, I didn’t know about the assignment excuse)
• Easily upload documents for student access (with much less effort than in Moodle)
• Assign papers/assignments using Dropbox feature so that students can upload their work (good if you don’t want stacks of paper on your desk)
• Easily create online quizzes and tests that can be easily copied from one course to another
• Set up gradebook, (again, where assignments/tests/papers can be copied from one course to another) where students can check their own grades when they want to (no more, Mrs. Solomon, what’s my grade?)

How GREAT would that last one be! We don't have to show students their grades, they can do it on their own right on their cell phone or iPod! Speaking of GREAT...did I mention, yet, that Schoology is set up to work with Google docs?! Talk about convenience. Not only are we affecting our students and their education, but we are making life easier for us as teachers! Again, win-win! And, if any of our teachers are currently using Moodle, they can easily transfer over. Solomon shares, "Oh, and if you're a Moodle user, you can import all of your Moodle courses to Schoology with just a click". 

I want to leave with one question..... Why not? Let's do this, change the way our students learn, interact, think and share. Let's make this change and begin to use a learning management system to be competitive, stay "up" with the current times and take advantage of these WONDERFUL, FREE programs just waiting for more educators and students to come use them :)