A friend of mine was telling me that several teachers at his school use www.schoology.com He said that it was like Facebook to connect with students. You can keep track of grades, post assignments and reading assignments and more. It sounds good but I don't fully understand exactly how it works. Does anyone currently use it or have a better understanding of how it works?
I took a quick look at Schoology today. Thanks for the link babala. I haven't gone through it fully, but I was an early adopter of Edmodo-a similar LMS (a new acronym I learned today which means Learning Management Systems). I even wrote a three-part message on the Teaching Tips board here about Edmodo.
Though it was successful for me at first and even now has a Chinese interface, I've since backed away from using Edmodo here in China. It's awkward and students have a hard time using it, even in Chinese. And frankly, they prefer their own Chinese solutions. Thus QQ+WeChat. True, they're not LMS, but I'm fine with grading my own quizzes and marking attendance, quiz scores, etc. into my own Numbers-created spreadsheets for each class.
Edmodo (and Schoology) promise to do all those things, and,at least with Edmodo, i know it can. The big problem, recently encountered, is that when I introduced Edmodo to the students and showed them how to use it they were initially open to trying it, but after awhile it was just, like, "Well, we're really not into you."
i'm afraid moving to Schoology would net the same reaction. Plus as far as I can tell, it doesn't support/have a Chinese version UI like Edmodo now has.
Googling "Schoology vs. Edmodo" brings up some good comparison articles. And Schoology seems to win the day.
But none are related to using either in China with Chinese schools and Chinese students. I suspect Schoology would encounter the same difficulties I had in using Edmodo here after my early adoption.
Again, I withdraw my early recommendations of using Edmodo here. It was a näive moment.