If new technology doesn't simplify your life, change it or dump it.
A little over a year ago our school switched from Moodle to Haiku for our LMS program. I'm really happy with Haiku, and I think many of our teachers are seeing the benefits. The assessments and gradebooks have saved me a lot of time, and I love how well they're all integrated. However, Haiku has one fatal flaw. It's slow. I. Mean. Slow.
When I am building an assessment or managing my grades, I don't mind the time it takes for Haiku to authenticate me. That time is saved later. It's worth it. But 80% of my LMS work is simply sharing links of docs, forms, quizlet decks, announcements, tasks, and questions. I hate spending time signing in to Haiku to make a simple announcement.
Last year at Fall CUE, I attended Lisa Highfill's workshop on flipping the classroom. I'm a flipper myself, but I knew I would be able to learn something new and awesome from Lisa because every time I see her, I do. I did.
The biggest aha moment I got from her session was a solution to my LMS problem that was so simple, so elegant, so fast, and (now) so obvious. She has a separate Twitter account for her class.
After that session, I created my class's Twitter account and embedded it in my Haiku page. Now whenever I want to post something to my class, I just tweet it from the app. From my phone. From my tablet. No login necessary. Students and parents can get a clear and fast feed of what's happening in 140 characters or fewer.
A little over a year ago our school switched from Moodle to Haiku for our LMS program. I'm really happy with Haiku, and I think many of our teachers are seeing the benefits. The assessments and gradebooks have saved me a lot of time, and I love how well they're all integrated. However, Haiku has one fatal flaw. It's slow. I. Mean. Slow.
When I am building an assessment or managing my grades, I don't mind the time it takes for Haiku to authenticate me. That time is saved later. It's worth it. But 80% of my LMS work is simply sharing links of docs, forms, quizlet decks, announcements, tasks, and questions. I hate spending time signing in to Haiku to make a simple announcement.
Last year at Fall CUE, I attended Lisa Highfill's workshop on flipping the classroom. I'm a flipper myself, but I knew I would be able to learn something new and awesome from Lisa because every time I see her, I do. I did.
The biggest aha moment I got from her session was a solution to my LMS problem that was so simple, so elegant, so fast, and (now) so obvious. She has a separate Twitter account for her class.After that session, I created my class's Twitter account and embedded it in my Haiku page. Now whenever I want to post something to my class, I just tweet it from the app. From my phone. From my tablet. No login necessary. Students and parents can get a clear and fast feed of what's happening in 140 characters or fewer.