Thing 12: Social Learning & Learning Management Systems

At TAE we have used a variety of LMS including Collaborize the Classroom, Edmodo, and ToolBoxPro (a system developed by our local BOCES), and Quizlet.  I have teachers using all of these in one form or another. 

Our 12th grade social studies teacher really loves Collaborize and uses it weekly with his students for them to respond to a social, government, or DBQ type of question.  The kids love it and since they can access it from their phones it makes it even more fun for them.  Needing an email to sign up was not an issue for the older students, HOWEVER, it certainly was for our Freshmen.  In fact, the 9th grade social studies teacher switched to Edmodo this year because he had such a struggle getting students signed up through Collaborize.  He really likes the interface that Edmodo provides and finds that the younger crowd at least seem to utilize it more because it's more "Facebook-like" feel.

Many of our teachers have switched from using CastleLearning (which can be WAY expensive) to Quizlet for assessments and practice.  Quizlet is a great and FREE way to create learning modules like flashcards, matching, memory games, etc.  You can even upload Regents exams and many teachers have a lot of good stuff already out there.  My language, science, and social studies teachers use this with great frequency and it does allow the teacher to access individual student progress and assessment grades.  ToolBoxPro has been developed by our local GST BOCES and includes many of the features of Quizlet and Collaborize and allows the teacher to upload documents, create assessments, get grades and communicate.  ToolBox also has an interface with the teachers' websites and since we are required to use this to create our websites in the District some teachers find that beneficial.  My high school students and teachers really don't love ToolBox at all.  It's another sign in which often puts them off (although they have no trouble signing in twice to get to Facebook!) and more geared toward the lower grades.  It's been upgraded lately and I'm still exploring some of the new features.  It does have the added advantage that if we want something added or changed we can simply email the programmer and poof, it's fixed!

I explored Schoology and will be asking a couple of my peers to test it out.  We aren't heavy into the world of Apple products at TAE so the iPad interface is really not an issue.  Being able to add the video and rubric are awesome features for sure!  I am a product of the online learning age.  My Masters was earned online so things like Angel/Blackboard for second nature for me.  I love that my students can mimic that experience with the new (FREE) and very good tools out there.  I think that many students could benefit from a blended learning environment where they get the basics in class and then go online to explore and learn more on their own bringing back all those ideas into the classroom through both electronic discussion threads and in-person communication. 

I will post more as our exploration of Schoology and other learning management systems continues!