Functional LMSs/Social Networks that Can Serve as a Home Base for Your Classroom

Edmodo Schoology Moodle CourseSites by Blackboard

One of the oldest commercial products available in this space. CourseSItes is an effort on the part of Blackboard to counter free LMSs. https://www.coursesites.com Free for Individual Teachers; Enterprise Version Available for Departments/Schools

Haiku

Google Drive

Ning
Once the king of roll your own social networks, has fallen on hard times since starting to charge for even basic plans. http://www.ning.com

Summary

Social network-like LMS with a commitment to K-12 education

Powerful, freeium-based LMS with great mobile apps

Most used LMS in the world; advanced feature set and usage around the region

Newer product with a freeium model.

The workhouse of collaboration is also used by lots of schools as a psudo-LMS.

Website

http://www.edmodo.com

https://www.schoology.com Free for Teachers; Commercial Version Available for Departments/Schools

http://www.moodle.org Free (open source) to enterprise pricing. Works best when hosted by a commercial provider or locally in your district. iOS: Yes (here) Android: Yes (here) ** Apps have limited functionality Yes, built into the system Yes, built into the system

https://www.myhaikuclass.com

http://drive.google.com Free for individuals users; best benefits come from Google Apps for Education (free with archiving costs) iOS: Yes (here) Android: Yes (here) Yes, built into the system Yes, built into the system Can be set up to create accounts automatically with distract account systems. Can turn off components, but little granular control necessary

Price?

Free

Free for Individual Teachers

Basic plans start at $300 a year for a single instance.

Mobile Apps?

iOS: Yes (here) Android: Yes (here) Yes, built into the system Limited, yes

iOS: Yes (here) Android: Yes (here) Yes, built into the system Limited, yes Code-based enrollment.

iOS: Yes (here) Android: Yes (here) Yes, built into the system Limited, yes Can log in with a Google Apps, Twitter, Facebook, Windows Live or Yahoo Account. Can lock down components if necessary

iPad Only (here) Android: No Yes, built into the system Limited, yes

Claims to be mobile responsive with HTML5 rendering

Quizzing Feature? Content Hosting?

Yes; basic quizzing functionality Yes with limits Students can create their own accounts; administrators can manage accounts. Different levels of moderation available.

Student Management Features?

Code-based enrollment.

Enterprise version can be set up with district student systems. Can lock down components if necessary.

Can be set up with set up with district system.

Can sign in with a Google Apps account

Security and Classroom Management Features

Can set room to force moderation of all posts

Can lock down components if necessary Used aggressively in Montana (including Montana Digital Academy and the UM system). Newest version (2.5) is really advanced and has tons of cool features.

Can lock down components if necessary

Pros

Dead simple; Facebook-like interface

Easy, well thought-out interface. Designed for K-12 education.

Oldest learning management system in the business; this version has a lot of that knowledge built right in.

Excellent features for embedding parts of the web, from music to webpages into the system seamlessly.

Great collaboration suite.

Long-established history. Social network-like feature.

They are a corporate beast. :) Cons Very basic discussion and content hosting A newcomer to the game; not as many Learning curve for teachers Can be complicated for first time users.

Not widely adopted; not many help files or information.

Not really an LMS; most LMS-like features require substantial massaging or development by the teacher. Easily the most powerful set of tools in this bunch, but, needs to planned carefully for use.

Light on LMS features. Costly for individual classroom use. Used to be a great place for classroom teachers to set up Facebook-like systems but pricing structure has diminished its usefulness for teachers.

Helpful Information

No cost ever for teachers.

Lots of buzz around this product with adopts by a lot of major distracts that are leaders in educational technology.

Free, advertising-supported Moodle hosting at: MDL2: http://www.mdl2.com Gnomio: http://www.gnomio.com

Will it say free forever? Hard to say.

Very intuitive system once you get past the minor learning curve.

Demonstration Information

August Institute Code: tgwhfy

August Institute Code: 5CJNJ-RJKVH

August Institute Course: here. Code: LXJSS

Jason Neiffer

http://www.neiffer.com

http://www.techsavvyteacher.com

http://gplus.to/techsavvyteacher

@techsavvyteach