Professional Development using Schoology

Last year I wrote an article about using Edmodo for professional development. It was well received and continues to be well read. As the times continue to change and the technology at my fingertips gets stronger, my choices in technology continue to evolve. This past Fall I piloted Schoology and then fully adopted it for my high school classes in January. Now I am doing the same for my professional development courses.

Two weeks ago I began teaching my second PD course via Schoology. As with my high school courses, I am thoroughly sold on the quality and value of using Schoology. Three important factors in delivering quality online professional development have led me to share my interest in Schoology: seamless communication between participants and the instructor; participants can easily find materials provided; the instructor can provide quality, timely feedback to help participants understand their progress.

Schoology and Edmodo Part 2

In the first post on free blended learning platforms, I focused on the value of a quality Discussion tool within the platform (read that post here!). This week I will breakdown the features that help organize the online learning environment.

Managing a hybrid/blended course is relatively straightforward when your content is kept to a minimum. Do you just want to post homework? How about weekly discussions? Interested in posting only assignments? What if you want to collect assignments? What if you are aiming for a paperless classroom? All of these and more can be managed with the free classroom management tools Schoology and Edmodo.