Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Using Schoology as the Central Hub for your classroom

An essential part of a 1:1 classroom will be delivery of the material or workflow.  I've tried different management software to make this happen -- Edmodo, Livebinder, Google Docs, and Schoology.  These are all wonderful tools and can be very useful in your classroom.  But as regular readers of this blog may know, Keep It Simple Stewart.  I need a Central Hub for my 1:1 classroom to function.  Thus, Schoology is my most trusted LMS because of everything it offers. 

It definitely helped that my school district purchased an enterprise version of Schoology.  However, my classroom was leveraging Schoology before said purchase, and I'm not sure what changed after the purchase other than what seems to be an infinite amount of space for posting classroom resources.  (I leave all the technical stuff to the people who actually know what they're talking about.)

I organize my classroom's Schoology page by unit or chapters.  This aids in classroom managment and communication.  Both the students and teacher see the same thing.





Inside of each unit's folder, I post the resources we will be utilizing.



Among these resources could be my videos for my flipped classroom.



Powerpoints of classroom notes.



Readings for classroom use or homework.



Assignments with weblinks.



A discussion board where students can post and respond to prompts.




You may have noticed on the right hand side of some of the pictures, it indicates which students have turned them in.  That is particularly helped when handling the workflow portion of your 1:1 classroom.

With the ability to post everything in Schoology, it made it easier for my classroom to function.  The students knew where to go to get everything they needed to be successful in the class.  They didn't need prompting, I was never forced into finding a new app, and they were never confused about delivery method both from me and to me.

And access!  Students can access the resources 24/7 as long as they have an internet connection -- meaning they have 24/7 access to me.

Christmas in July!


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