Schoology - is it worth the time?

A co-worker recently showed me the educational networking site schoology.com. I think it could be really useful and easy for students to navigate as it is in a format similar to facebook. It is secure as students with passwords are the only ones able to access the pages and activities and they removed the messaging option to avoid inappropriate student contact - the teacher can see all activity.

Has anyone had success using this site? Problems with the site?

I'd like to put things like slideshows, PPTs, class notes and upload assignments for when students are absent, I don't have to print a million extra copies and if they are home sick with computer access, they don't fall behind.

I appreciate any suggestions/experiences you can share!

Thanks:)

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Permalink Reply by Garrison Daily on September 4, 2011 at 4:08pm

Ashley,

Schoology is interesting. Thanks for sharing. I understand your desire to have assignments accessible to all. Mine have been totally online for years, now. It looks like schoology would work well and has the familiar interface that kids would identify with.

Personally, though, Google offers just as much, if not more. My students find their assignments on their period's own calendar/website page which is absolutely no extra work for me. I enter my plan into my own calendar and it automatically pushes to their pages. The moment I change my calendar (and we do change plans, often), the student calendars are automatically updated.

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Permalink Reply by Dave Craig on September 5, 2011 at 5:27am

I agree that Google offers so much more than Schoology, but where I work Google accounts are not an option for my young 4th graders. In fact, Google Docs is blocked and only I as an educator can unblock it. I am hopeful that this will change at some point but for now Google Docs remains a resource for me only and hopefully I can continue using Schoology with my class.

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Permalink Reply by Dave Craig on September 5, 2011 at 5:24am

I have used it and really enjoyed my experience. My district purchased it and I was able to implement for the 2010-11 school year. I don't know if I will have the same opportunity for this school year because nobody has let me know whether it is still available.It is very similar to Facebook and my 4th graders for the mostpart really enjoyed it.

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Permalink Reply by hartman.susan4 on September 5, 2011 at 8:00pm

I used this site all last year with much success. This year several other teachers have signed on- at the students' request. I used it to post all assignments (with worksheets so there are no more lost/forgotten paper excuses). THe students used the group feature to work on group projects - able to share resources and communicate with each other (with me as a group member so it didn't become a chat session). This year they have improved several features - their dropbox for turning in assignments is even better than last year and direct messaging the teacher so they can ask questions without everyone seeing their question. They have added albums for sharing pictures for projects. My colleague is using the discussion feature for posting blogs that students need to respond to and also respond to their peers' posts. I think this is a great program for grades 7-12, especially for those going on to college and needing to know how to use Blackboard or similar programs. For younger kids, I like Edmodo - same basic idea as Schoology, but not as many features. I also had a very successful year using that program with 7th/8th graders. They too have added several features since I used it. I will be using that program with grades 5/6 this year.

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Permalink Reply by Keith Schoch on September 5, 2011 at 8:28pm

Just want to let Dave know that his class can use it for free; districts have the option of purchasing so that they can have greater control.

FYI haven't used this yet myself, but I've got it linked on our wiki and we may have a go at it. Seems very similar to Edmodo but with a few more bells and whistles.