This week I am going to talk about learning management systems (LMS).  An LMS is a software program that allows teachers to deliver electronic educational content trainings or programs.  They allow a teacher to supply course content, facilitate discussions, track attendance, record grades, go paperless (with assignments and tests), and join learning communities.  Edmodo and Schoology are two such LMS's.  Click above on their names for links to these systems.

Both LMS are set-up similar to Facebook which makes its use a little easier for teachers, students, and parents.  Yes!  Even parents can sign-up for a log in to monitor their students progress.  Edmodo and Schoology both have similar features such as parent log in, ability to post files or video resources, grade book, and include a calendar feature.  Teachers can also create assignments, quizzes/tests, and polls.

Edmodo: 

Overview of Edmodo

Here are some great features that Edmodo offers.  They have a badge system that teachers can set up to award students when they have made progress or achieved a goal.  This motivational tool will get students excited.  The feature that I think is really cool is Snapshot!  This new feature allows teachers to assess students progress towards grade level standards.  The teacher can choose the subject and standards  to be assessed.  Edmodo has preloaded questions and gives a report of results on the student's performance on the standards being assessed.  What teacher does not like data!  Here is a video clip on this feature.

For more tutorial videos on the amazing features that Edmodo has to offer visit YouTube and search under "Edmodo tutorials for teachers."

Schoology:

Overview of Schoology

Schoology has many great features that make it a useful tool for the classroom.  Videos and materials such as files from your computer can be directly added to your posts.  It has a resource file that allows you to add media, but it also allows media to be added directly.  Adding media was simple and easy to complete.  The ease of use of this site is clear.  Here are some great videos to help you in exploring the benefits of this LMS.

Using Schoology in the Classroom

Organizing Your Blended Course Using Schoology

More videos can be found on YouTube by searching "Schoology tutorials for teachers."

I encourage you to explore these two educational tools to see which works best for your setting.

Enjoy exploring!

Social Networks in the Educational Setting

This week we learned about many wonderful social networking sites and how they could be used in the classroom.  Many of our students are fluent in the latest social networking technology.  Could this same technology be used to reach the students?  The answer is Yes!  Twitter, and Diigo are being used by teachers to help students work collaboratively.  These same sites are also being used by teachers to network by share ideas and resources.  This leads to a great professional development opportunities.

Diigo is a social bookmarking site that allows the user to save material found on the internet in one place.  The user can add tags that help organize the material that has been saved or bookmarked.  However, that is not all that Diigo can do.  It allows the user to highlight selected material online and save these annotations.  Diigo also has a sticky note feature that allows the user to jot quick notes to accompany saved sources.  This comes in handy for those of us who find great resources and then go back later and not remember what was so special about the information.  Sounds a lot easier than hand written note cards!  Here is a great Diigo Introduction video.

Introduction

The Basics of Diigo

The videos also mention that there is an educators account that is free and allows teachers to create groups by adding their students.  Diigo is a great collaborative tool.  Interested in getting started with Diigo?

Another networking site that is beneficial to teachers is Twitter.  Many teachers are now utilizing Twitter for professional development.  Twitter is a fantastic way to keep up-to-date on the latest trends in education.  The exchange of ideas and resources benefits any who choose to mine its treasures.  Teachers can find educational chats and join them live.  Twitter is another way to keep students and parents informed about school.  They can easily be alerted through Twitter of new class blog postings.  Most students are familiar with the use of social networking and this provides a great way to reach students in an engaging way.

It is easy and free to join Twitter and start tweeting just click here!

Here is a great tutorial video on using Twitter.

How can educators use Twitter?  Watch this!

Here are some more great links to additional resources for making the most of Twitter.

Educational Chats

List of great people to follow

I hope I have provided a lot of great tools and resources for educators.  It really is easy to become a connected educator.  If I can, so can you!

Blogs, RSS Feeds, and Feedly

This week I began taking another technology course towards my master's degree.  I love learning new ways to make my life easier and more efficient.  After all, that is the goal of new technologies!  This week we are exploring blogs and creating one to reflect on our new found skills.  As an educator I follow many wonderful educational blogs.  They provide many new ideas, resources and keep me up-to-date with changes in the world of education.

Blogs and many other sites such as news-related sites deliver their information via a RSS feed.  Why?  The information that is provided is regularly updated or changing and this provides a way to quickly deliver this information.  How do you know if the site is an RSS feed?  Just look for the following symbol.



Even though monitoring many blogs is a great way to learn new ideas and information.  It can be time consuming to enter in each URL to see what has been newly added.  That is were an feed reader can come in handy.  One great feed reader is Feedly.  It allows you to add all your blogs and search for new ones and displays them all on the same page.  New posts or feeds are added to the page.  This eliminates the need to bring each one up individually.  All of your feeds can be found in one place!

Feedly is free and if you already have a google account it is easy to start using Feedly.  Here is the link to Feedly.

This tutorial video will help introduce you to this time saving tool.

It really is easy to stay up on the latest news for anything in which you are interested.