Education Technology

This school year, I have been using and reviewing My Big Campus from Lightspeed Systems in my classroom. My Big Campus is an online service that allows schools to create an engaging, collaborative online environment. It allows schools and teachers to create a virtual classroom to use with their students. There is a resource library with videos, web sites, wiki’s and more. You can create groups and blogs and use the messaging system. Teachers can create a classroom calendar and even create, assign, and grade student assignments. The teacher can keep up with what the students are doing through the notification system too. Teachers can upload files to share with their students. It can even be used for staff development and communications and collaboration in place of in-person meetings.

It was extremely easy to set up and use, and there are great help resources, a blog with tips for using it, and a user forum. To get other teachers, or your students, to sign up and connect with you, just send them an invite email through the system, or even generate a unique URL to share with them.

The stand alone version of My Big Campus is free to use and chock-full of some great features. You can also purchase My Big Campus with a Collaborative Web Filter. To find out more, check the “Getting Started” page.

I have set it up with my resource library of files that I usually post on my class website, links that I usually put on my class blog, and use the calendar feature to put in assignment due dates and reminders, test dates and even have school events listed. If you whole school is using it, there is a calendar category for school events and even district events.

The “Your Stuff” section is the one I’ve used the most so far. I’ve uploaded files, photos and links to web sites and even YouTube videos. What I like is that you can filter by type of resource and easily search all of your “stuff.” You can upload class resources and more and share them with students, or other educators. You can also search the Educational Resources Library and see some of the resources other educators have uploaded and use with your class.

The assignments feature is great and allows you to easily assign students work and tasks and manage them and see who has completed what assignments. Students get notified about new assignments so they won’t forget.



My Big Campus has apps for iOS and Android. The apps have most of the functions that the full website does. You can see a screen shot of the Android app below and see all the features it has. The Android app is easy to use and works great. I’ve been playing with it for the last day or so and love it. It allows teachers to access the MBC accounts from anywhere. I like the fact that now I can use it while walking around my classroom working with my students.

Android App: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.lightspeedsystems.mbc

iOS App: http://mbcurl.me/1RM


Another feature is EduTalk. EduTalk is MBC’s “social network for educators”. It is made up of status updates from educators, not students, and allows educators to share resources, tips, ideas and more. It’s a great way to connect with other educators using MBC and share ideas. It’s also great if you have questions about MBC or how to do things.


The calendar feature allows you to add events, reminders, due dates and more and your students can subscribe to the class calendar to stay current. Setting study reminders a couple of days before exams, or a due date reminder a few days before a project due date, is a great way to help your students stay on schedule.

The conversations feature is a great place to hold virtual study and help sessions. It can be in real time, or can be done as you and your students have time to connect. Students can post questions as they study and get help from the teacher or classmates. Teachers can hold study groups and review sessions. This is also good for schools when there are snow days and cancellations, as classes could still “meet” and learn.

The Schoolwork section is where you can assign work to your students and where they find their assignments. It also keeps track of what is graded and what still needs to be graded. I assigned review work before the midterm exam using this feature.



My Big Campus has a lot of great features that make things better and easier for educators and students. You can share files, communicate, assign work, conduct class discussions, hold help sessions online, and create an online environment for your class that is useful and easy to use.

My Big Campus is a very useful and powerful tool for educators and students.  Try it out yourself and see. http://www.mybigcampus.com/

Edmodo is a free social learning network for teachers, students and schools, providing a way to connect and collaborate, share content, access homework and grades, communicate, organize lessons, and much more.



It provides teachers a private, safe way to connect with their students and parents, organize and share lessons, share resources with students, manage projects, remind students of important dates, and even distribute quizzes. The fact that it is a private system is what makes it appealing to teachers and school systems. It's also free. There are also mobile apps, allowing access to Edmodo and it's features on your smartphone or tablet.



Edmodo recently announced that it has over 7 million users and is used in over 80,000 schools in both the US and around the world. Some of the biggest school districts in the US are deploying it across their entire district. It has managed to raise millions of dollars in investments and funding to keep it going.

One of the features that makes Edmodo popular and more "student friendly" is that it is similar to Twitter and Facebook in that it has a stream-based environment. Students and teachers can converse and communicate using a familiar stream, or conversation on a wall environment.



This past March, Edmodo also opened up it's API, the information and tools developers need to create apps that work with Edmodo, and is allowing educational app developers the ability to create apps that work with Edmodo. This will give these app developers a huge audience (Edmodo users) and a built in market to sell their apps. Edmodo will get a percentage of the sale, helping support the platform. Edmodo with have it's own app store for these apps and already has partners working to develop apps for it. It will launch this coming September. These apps will help Edmodo, and can be very useful to teachers and students in expanding learning opportunities and the functions of Edmodo.

Edmodo is a great resource for education. It allows teachers and students to communicate, collaborate, share, and learn, all in a private, secure environment.

This success is welcome news for teachers who are using it. It means that it should be around for quite a while. We only hope that with success, doesn't come any negative changes.


Edmodo home page: http://www.edmodo.com/

Source:   TechCrunch

Related:

22 Great Tips on using Edmodo in the classroom

5 Great course management resources for educators

Twiducate is a social network platform for education. It is free and easy to use. It allows you to do the same things you could do with other social networks, like Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, but in a safe and secure setting.

Teachers can use Twiducate to connect with other teachers and students, share ideas, resources, and ideas, hold discussions, and much more. You can even embed images, videos, documents and links to share. It is also available for mobile. Teachers can create an online classroom using it as a course management system. You can also use it to communicate with parents.


It's a great way to be able to connect with your students and other teachers in a secure, private setting.

Here's an infographic about Twiducate:




Related:

Twitter, Google Plus, and Facebook - a nice comparison

Social Media in Education - connect, share, learn, communicate and more
EDU 2.0 Free Course Management System for Schools

5 Great course management resources for educators

it's learning Course Management System

OpenClass - Pearson and Google combine to make free LMS

Learnboost online planner/gradebook announces new admin features

EDU 2.0 is a free course management system for schools. It is cloud-hosted, easy to use, and well designed and includes features for students, parents, teachers and administrators. Teachers can share class resources and more with their students and other teachers.

The features are excellent. Teachers can create lessons, assessments, quizzes, an online gradebook, their own start page portal, class calendar, discussion forums and much more.


The free plan includes unlimited teachers accounts with up to 2000 student accounts. Features include: Customizable portal, Classes, lessons, resources, Five types of assignments, Quizzes and question banks, Rubrics, Gradebook, Collaboration tools, Portfolios, Libraries for sharing, News and activity feeds, Integrated social networking, Parent accounts, Great on mobile devices, Unlimited storage.

Here is a great Google Docs presentation on the features of EDU 2.0




This is another great option for schools looking for a course management system for in-person classes or even to start creating online courses.


Related:

5 Great course management resources for educators

it's learning Course Management System

OpenClass - Pearson and Google combine to make free LMS

Learnboost online planner/gradebook announces new admin features

LearnBoost is an online grade book and lesson planner that is available for free to educators. It has a grade book, lesson planner, attendance, reporting and calendar. It is easy to use, visually appealing, and you can share information with students and parents. The lesson planner is integrated with state standards and you integrate the whole system with Google Apps. Parents and students have access to view grades, attendance, calendars, and course information too.