Schoology
Schoology is a free learning management system (LMS) that looks and feels exactly like social media websites like Facebook. However, the main aim of the program is create a community within the classroom setting as students are able to learn, share and collaborate with each other. Schoology offers a variety of functions to engage students as they interact with online quizzes, polls, videos, pictures etc. The program also has the ability of establishing a relationship between students and teachers as the teacher is easily accessible through the program and as students see that their teacher can use a site that feels like Facebook.
There are a couple of downsides to Schoology. Although it offers protection from the outside world and students only have access to pages that teachers give them access to, there is still room for behavioural issues if students decide to post inappropriate things on the page. This might be hard to police as well, as students could be posting it at an hour in which teachers are not on the website and then deleting it shortly after. Parents may also have concerns that their child is on a social media-like page with fellow students and teacher.
I used Schoology as my main tool for my Social Media role within the SEPEP Unit. My main reason for using Schoology was that the mechanics were very much the same as Facebook and therefore I knew students would be able to pick it up instantly. I also have a strong belief in making the classroom feel like a community of learners as a strategy in classroom management and feel like this app could do just that, if used correctly. Schoology was also very easy to use, as expected it was very similar to Facebook with a couple of extra resources such as being able to post quizzes and assignments. Here are a couple of screenshots of the group page that I created:
There are a couple of downsides to Schoology. Although it offers protection from the outside world and students only have access to pages that teachers give them access to, there is still room for behavioural issues if students decide to post inappropriate things on the page. This might be hard to police as well, as students could be posting it at an hour in which teachers are not on the website and then deleting it shortly after. Parents may also have concerns that their child is on a social media-like page with fellow students and teacher.
I used Schoology as my main tool for my Social Media role within the SEPEP Unit. My main reason for using Schoology was that the mechanics were very much the same as Facebook and therefore I knew students would be able to pick it up instantly. I also have a strong belief in making the classroom feel like a community of learners as a strategy in classroom management and feel like this app could do just that, if used correctly. Schoology was also very easy to use, as expected it was very similar to Facebook with a couple of extra resources such as being able to post quizzes and assignments. Here are a couple of screenshots of the group page that I created:
For more information head to; www.schoology.com