Taking the best features from Moodle, Facebook and Google Docs, Schoology appears to have great appeal toward today's digital natives.
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| Schoology looks and feels like Facebook |
Students today use social networks for everything from chatting, to updating their status, to share documents, plan and even meet other friends. While the latest trend is to ban social networks in school, Schoology is taking all of the positive features of social networking and creating a safer educational platform. Schoology allows classes to blog, take assessments and share which is engages students because the look and feel of the platform mimics the look and feel of the popular social network site Facebook.
The following testimonials are just a few of the comments that teachers and administrators have made about Schoology on it educational and simplistic value:
“Schoology has been a great addition to my teaching. My students love it -- and they tell me how much easier it is to use than Moodle.” - T. KIMBALL, TEACHER @ AMITY HIGH SCHOOL
“Much better user interface than Moodle, and much more user-friendly/intuitive. Blackboard was too pricey!” - MELLISSA T, DIRECTOR OF INSTRUCTION AND LEARNING @ THE LINSLY SCHOOL
“Schoology allows a teacher to create a meaningful virtual classroom, extend learning beyond the boundaries of the physical classroom, and connect with students and colleagues in ways that enhance both teaching and learning.” - NICK NICHOLS, WESTMINSTER CHRISTIAN ACADEMY
I have recently signed our school up with an account and hope to initiate a move to this platform and which would possibly replace our current Moodle system.
Hey Dennis -- great find. We currently use Blackboard to the tune of $19000 per year. I can't honestly say we're maximizing it's use, so we're definitely not getting the bang for our buck. We went to Blackboard after several years with eChalk, which was more economical, but we clearly had issues accessing the data that had nothing to do with our limited bandwidth.
ReplyDeleteIt's always great to explore other learning environments, so thanks for doing some of the legwork on this one. I've looked at Moodle, but the initial setup looked a little too labor-intensive - something that Schoology seems to have working in its favor.
I'm looking forward to following your progress. I'm going to sign up for an account as well, just to do some first-hand discovery.
Do you know if it has integration features with student information systems? Another one we're looking at right now is onCourse -- not as economical as Schoology, but it would integrate with PowerSchool, our SIS. So course enrollment changes would be synched to the LMS from the SIS -- a great time-saver for me!
Thanks again for opening another door.
Dennis,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great tool to use to collaborate with students and colleagues. By using this tool, we are making education enjoyable for our students. I shared this with a friend of mines who is a teacher in South Georgia. She is excited about using this platform and will encourage her school to adopt it. Thank you for the information.