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!

LMS- To Edmodo or not to Edmodo.... that is the question

So in considering Edmodo as an LMS in my 9^th grade Special education classroom, I immediately signed up for an account.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I tend to jump into something and get a feel for it in order to learn about it.  I am not the person who reads the “about” page or looks up all the critiques and reviews.  I like to see how easy something is to use, how does it feel, what does it look like, how does it react if I do X, Y and Z.  

And so my initial reaction to signing up is that it was extremely easy.  You create your account and then are given this checklist in order to completely set up your “classroom”. Your first step after setting up your personal profile is to register your school.  My district was not currently using Edmodo and so in 3 or 4 easy steps I typed in my districts info and so now any other teachers that choose to use Edmodo will just choose us from a drop-down list

Following the guiding checklist, I then went to the notifications checklist.  And I have to tell you this feature right here is what drew me in and had me initially hooked.  You can get notifications about alerts, notes, links, files, etc.  Okay okay big deal right?  You AND THE STUDENTS can get these alerts via email, text messages to their phones, or tweets on their desktop.  How cool is that?!?!?!?!  I know I am a dork, but I found this feature so exciting.  I can keep up and they can keep up with assignments group work, questions, dates, the calendar everything easily.  I have to be honest, we were asked to sign up for twitter this past month through my grad program, and I did.  But up until now, I did not really see a need or purpose for it.  Even though Clay Shirkey discussed the idea that we Americans often see the entertainment benefits before any other, on this one I have to say I did not follow the norm.  I did not see any real value to it, but being able to get instant up to date notifications of activity in the LMS would be an amazing feature.  I can even keep the notifications via twitter while I am at my desk and then change it to text message when I am on the road.  Simply brilliant.  

So the next step in the process of setting up your room is to add groups.  A colleague of mine, KEVIN has a great tutorial for doing this on his blog page, but it is very simple and you can color code your classes and each feature would then work for the individual group to help keep things organized.

You can then upload content to your "library".  Allowing students to access your materials for readings, reference, and assignments.  And like any meaningful web 2.0 tool there is ways to connect with other teachers to share and collaborate to the extent and degree to which you wish.  On the students end they are able to access and submit classwork and assignments.  I plan on providing students with links where they will be able to view the video taped lessons and classwork, as I have found that one of the main problems with students is that either attendance is low and they miss the work, their behavior problems in other areas of the school day require that the deans are calling them out of core classes and they are missing materials that way, or they simply need to experience the lesson more than once to gain a better understanding of the material.  Once the students submit work you as a teacher can access and grade it, where they will then be able to receive a grade immediately.  This cuts down on drag time between the actual assignment and final grade.  In the past and depending on the schedule, no matter how effective a teacher you are, a week can go by between handing in and getting back of work.  This tool eliminates that lag.  

Overall this tool offers so much and in such an appealing and simple yet sophisticated way, that it looks like a ringer! 

LMS- Which Way Do I Go?

As an attempt to take a deep and genuine look at what I perceive to be my student’s number one educational impediment, lack of organizational skills and tools, I am looking to dive into Learning Management Systems (LMS).  I have narrowed my personal choices down to two web-based applications, Schoology and Edmodo, however I think I really need to have a firm hold on what LMS’s are and how and why they are being used.  

According to Ryann K. Ellis, editor of Learning Circuits, the definition of a learning management system is that it is “a software application that automates the administration, tracking, and reporting of training events. However, it’s not that simple. A robust LMS should be able to do the following:

• centralize and automate administration

• use self-service and self-guided services

• assemble and deliver learning content rapidly

• consolidate training initiatives on a scalable web-based platform

• support portability and standards

• personalize content and enable knowledge reuse.

More important, an LMS should integrate with other enterprise application solutions used by HR and accounting, enabling management to measure the impact, effectiveness, and over all cost of training initiatives.” (Ellis, 2009)

And so before I really looked into what an LMS was, I had actually had quite a bit of experience with them.  I have taken about a dozen different online courses through several colleges and have varied opinions of them.  At the time I didn’t really pay attention to the planning and development side of using them, but rather the students’ end.  Through the years some of the particular issues I remember having were the ability to easily access particular features.  I am generally the type of person who does not read through the directions.  I jump in, head first and then if and when I hit a snag I will look for solutions.  (I know, I know your probably thinking that as a teacher I should probably not be taking this approach, but it is how I learn and what works for me.) I also had issues with the lack of options; often the system was so rigid that you had no room to be creative in terms of what and how you submitted work, or to what extent you could communicate with your peers.  I think another overall issue that I had was with the “feel” you got from using them.  You know when you walk into a room and it has the bold printed wall paper or wood paneling and the worn lime green shag rug?  It just gives you that feeling of clammy and outdated.  Some of the layouts or appearances gave me that same  feeling, that they were dated.  At the time I found this pretty ironic since ten years ago it was not nearly as common to take online courses and therefore I expected a very progressive and innovative feel to everything about the process. 

All being said, I have found a great LMS through Full Sail University which as a student has been efficient, creative, supportive, and down right student friendly.  However, I am looking for a much smaller scale operation, because as of right now I am looking for a LMS to serve up to 20 students all taking 4 core courses at the secondary level.  So, I am limited to what I, one single and somewhat “low on the totem pole” figure in my school, can accomplish and to what I truly need. 

            My pursuit was driven by the challenge of getting my students to be successful in terms of their independent and at-home assignments.  After many discussions with my colleagues, with administration, with parents and most importantly with the kids themselves, I believe the main (not the sole) cause of this problem is that the students just do not possess the skills and tools necessary to be independently organized and studious.  So I looked at what tools and skills they were being given and I realized that there was a major gap between the advancement of what was available and what we were teaching and encouraging them to use.  So I needed an LMS that was organized and efficient.  I realized that I had experience with both ends of that spectrum.  I think that every system I have seen has been organized but not always logical or convenient in terms of the user end.  I also needed it to “feel” cool, up-to-date, and contemporary.  I have young students and when I ask them to participate in activities or events that are perceived as “old” or out of date, I will inevitably get the eye-roll and will definitely not get commitment if I even get participation at all. 

            So with a bit of searching I found Edmodo and Schoology which both meet the needs I have described.   They both offer a centralized and automate administration which can actually be shared with more than one teacher if need be, such as in a co-teaching situation or if your administrator wants to have equal access to your classes.  They both allow the students and the teacher to assemble and deliver learning content rapidly, they both support portability which for me was extremely important.  They both also allow for the personalized content and enable knowledge reuse (through saving and archiving).  So in the next few days I will be narrowing down my choice between the two, which although it ay not seem, is quite a big decision.  I feel as though once I commit to one or the other, my students', my administration, and the parents will all buy or reject my plans for teaching based on how well I can deliver and educate through this platform.  I not only need to pick what is good for me in terms of teaching, what is good for the kids in terms of learning, but what will be best received from those who will not have their hands directly in the mix.  I am not panicking though, the choice will come, and When I analyze the perks and pitfalls of each I know the answer will be clear......er,...... I hope.

Citations:

Ellis R. (2009) Field Guide to Learning Management Systems. Learning Circuits. American Society for Training & Development.

All images retrieved Saturday August 28, 2010 from Flickr Creative Commons.