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Ask HN: Schools are closing. Advice on teacher’s communication with students?
We’ve just been informed that my daughter’s middle school is closing as of next week. Everything will be done online but teachers are scrambling at the last minute to setup various programs with which they are painfully unfamiliar. The two platforms to which they have defaulted are Edmodo and Remind. Are there any others with more robust features but relatively easy to set up for the nontechnical person. Are Slack and Discord appropriate technically for the middle school group? Recommendations for more involved solutions are also welcomed, including any for K-12 in general.
- genbit 7y agoI believe Zoom was made free for K-12 now, so at least for video conferencing this could be used, maybe in combination with Slack.
- bradtx 7y agoGradefinity is a testing solution/micro LMS which accommodates online and in-person testing: https://gradefinity.com https://gradefinity.com It was primarily built to serve as a Scantron replacement, so classroom management features are limited to online testing and course announcements. Full disclosure: I work a full-time job (at least for now, save for any layoffs) so support would be somewhat limited. I can also take down the paywall for as long as needed for any schools affected by Covid-19 Other free options: - Moodle (more technically involved, needs to installed/hosted by someone and setup can be challenging) - Canvas (I haven't personally used this, but it seems to be growing in popularity. From what I understand it is somewhat similar to BlackBoard)
- stvmlbrn 7y agoLoom just announced that education accounts are free. Forever. https://www.loom.com https://www.loom.com