If you love the concept behind such social networking websites as Facebook and MySpace, and wish that you could socialize with your students outside of your classroom but at the same time, are too afraid to share your entire personal life with your students, then here is the answer for you. Schoology is a social networking Web 2.0 tool that creates a digital classroom helping you to not only socialize with your students and their parents, but also propel your instruction beyond the traditional classroom setting.
The first tool I would like to introduce is a tool that manages students' grades and attendance. This is a great tool that allows teachers, students, and parents to monitor students' progress in each assignment and test. The tool's simple interface makes it easy for educators to stay organized. It also monitors attendance, and it allows students who are sick at home to review the day's materials at home and complete their assigned schoolwork.
The second tool--the assignments, tests, and quizzes tool--allows teachers to create online assignments and exams, and then to communicate to students about these upcoming assignments. This makes life easier not only for teachers, but also for students because the tool allows them to keep track of when important assignments are due. Moreover, the Schoology interface seems to mimic Facebook's interface, and this works to users' advantage since the interface provides a learning environment that students are already familiar with.
And the best part for teachers is that Schoology automatically grades students’ assignments, tests, and quizzes, and uploads these grades to the online grade book shown earlier.
The course analytics tool, after regularly processing user feedback, graphs out monthly statistics that allow teachers and administrators to evaluate the course and how the network is being used. Administrators can also set up department groups online to discuss innovative ways to better tailor the curriculum to students' needs.
The Web 2.0 tool gives teachers the freedom to go beyond outdated classroom instruction and progress to what is effective and relevant for our twenty-first-century learners. Overall, I think Schoology is a great tool that every teacher should at least try out. I have not yet found any flaws with this tool. Plus, it is currently for the most part free. It almost feels like I am seeing into the future!
This is an interesting idea! I know some districts are already employing similar systems which show the parents their child's grade, however the system does not allows the parent to access any missing work, or communicate with the teacher. I was wondering how long it would take a teacher to input all of the classwork for the missing students? Is it a lot of upkeep?
ReplyDeleteI thought the statistical component was especially useful! Sometimes it takes a graph showing the missing parts, or declining grades, to see when, and in what area, a student began deviating from their traditional path. There are many interesting items on this tool, thanks for sharing!
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