LMS- Schoology -noun 1.) the study of making school accessible

So I just want to start this post by saying two things; if this decision that I am faced with was based solely on what I want out of an LMS, this application would win hands down, and as far as my administration goes, I think there are a few features that may just help to sell this one over as well, but I will explain in just a minute.

So in terms of sign up and start, Schoology has a quick and direct process.  Much like Edmodo, when you initially sign-up to use Schoology you are then prompted to create a profile and have the access to the basic layout of the appllication.  You are able to add a photograph of yourself and adjust your privacy settings.  In terms of security and privacy I am quite impressed with their commitment to the issues.  When you set up your account you are then asked what district you work for and in order to verify your account, Schoology sends an email to your school email address, which you then have to respond to.  In order for your students to join your courses, similar to Edmodo, you as the teacher need to provide them with an access code.  

Although these features are wonderful for the end result of using this tool in the classroom, it did make it a bit difficult for me to full experiment and review this tool as I do not yet have access to my district email.  Other features however that I do truly like about Schoology is that they provide the ability for the teacher and student to create and keep current separate calendars for the school, course, group and individual.  For me this is important, as my goal is to promote independence and acquisition of self-help and self-assessment in terms of organization and study skills. 

So once I am verified I will be able to create courses, invite students, upload files and links.  Another major benefit of this tool over others is the blog space.  As I intend to encourage my students to use blogging to express their ideas, concerns, confusions, thoughts and such about the subjects we will be exploring, with the other application I was going to have to link in to another application to allow this.  Here I am able to do this right on the spot. 

 

All in all, although I was a bit frustrated with the security issue, I do appreciate it and think that my administration will as well.  I also like that Schoology has already thought of a way to allow parents access to their children’s course work and that they go beyond just the simple grading feature which I discussed in my last post.  After you have graded students’ work, Schoology provides analytic breakdown of the data.  Again this is another feature that I think administration will come to truly appreciate.  

I have found in the past that whenever you can support your work with visual representations, the work becomes that much more meaningful.  So as much as I would like to say 100% that this is the app. I am going with, without full access I can dive in wholeheartedly.  I feel like this will be best for my students, myself, administration and parents.  But I am still up in the air.  So please weigh in, if you have experience, thoughts or feedback, now would be the time to throw in your two cents!