Edmodo vs Schoology

This week, I tried out two Learning Management Systems (LMS). I'll admit, I was a little out of my comfort zone. I try to integrate digital learning with my students often, but I hadn't jumped into the world of a virtual classroom... yet. Both Edmodo and Schoology are free learning platforms that are simple to set up. I checked them both out to decide which one I want to implement for myself!

Edmodo:
Edmodo is the LMS that has been used by my school district, so it was the one I was most familiar with. My own children have used it with some of their teachers. So, naturally, it was the one I gravitated towards first. This video gives you an idea of what you can do with Edmodo:

As you can see, it's a pretty sweet tool for teachers, and students seem to really enjoy it. It can, however, be fairly time-consuming to get it started, and I'm still getting used to the organization of it all. That is the most difficult part for me. I don't feel that it's completely intuitive, but it's not too hard to figure out if you already understand basic digital folder systems.

Schoology:

Schoology was completely new to me before this week. Despite it being around since 2007, I hadn't even heard of it! Just like Edmodo, it's a virtual classroom where teachers and students can communicate and collaborate. 

This video really got me excited to try out Schoology. I initially thought I'd like it better than Edmodo because it seemed like it could do more. While playing around by adding files and creating lessons, however, I found it to be less user-friendly.  There seems to be a bit more of a learning curve with Schoology.

Bonus:
There is one more platform that I'd love to play around in, and that's Google Classroom. It's no secret that I love me some Google, and I feel like this might be the right fit for me. Unfortunately, I don't have access to it through my school Google account, so that will have to wait. Luckily, thanks to the wonderful world of the internet, I found a review that compared all three LMS!

Taken from MyELearningWorld.com. Check the site for more detailed comparisons.

My instructor shared this post about Google Classroom, too.

Currently, in my classroom, we use shared folders in Google Drive to organize digital work. I have a classroom shared folder that is "view only" where I post assignments, rubrics, class lists, interesting links, the weekly newsletter, etc. I also have individual shared folders with editing rights for each of my students. This is where they turn in their work, and I post their graded rubrics. I give them tests using Google Forms, and they present information using Google Slides and Docs. We use so much Google in my class, that I'm sure a transition to Google Classroom would be seamless - if only I had access! 

For now, I plan to tinker a bit more with Edmodo. Who knows? I may end up loving it, and jump full-force into it this fall. For me, new tech is not scary, (I LOVE learning about and playing with technology) but for some reason picking and using an LMS is proving difficult for me. Here's hoping it's easier for you!