Learning Management System Questions

I have been looking into different Learning Management Systems (LMS) for a while now.  I started with Edmodo and loved the ease of use with it, but have started using Schoology because of the many options it gives me. It has some amazing tools for discussions, assignments, assessments, and collaboration. One of the new bonuses it will have soon is the ability to video conference with a student.  I can see that being used during class with an absent student, or with another teacher to teach a lesson.  My district has bought into the Enterprise version and that gave me even more options. Because we are using Schoology, a few teachers in our school attended the Schoology #NEXT14 conference in Denver in June.  They put on quite the shindig for their first conference.  The keynote speakers were amazing, the break out sessions were great and very helpful for a guy that has use it a little for a few PD classes.  The conference gave me some great ideas on how to use it, but then came the questions I had to ask.

• How is this going to make me a better teacher?
• How is this going to give my students the opportunity to learn more?
• Is this going to make my job easier or harder?
• Will it become a place to just upload packets or will it have something more to it?
• How can I use this tool to truly differentiate the learning in my class without making it a “To Do List” of assignments?

I have to ask myself these questions because I am a bit tired of the “magic bullet” app or program every other week. I do not mind working a little harder to provide new and better opportunities for my students to learn. I do not want a paperless program that I scan pages of work into and upload them for students to complete and hand back to me. I want less paper, but not because students can copy it into their annotation app and send it back. I want something more. I have district mandated programs that give me plenty of worksheets if I choose to use them, but what can I put in my LMS that will help the students go deeper in their learning? How can I set up my lessons for students to think about how it all fits together and then solve the problem without being able to Google it or use Wolfram Alpha to show the process?

So here I sit with my computer and the District mandated programs to work out my lessons and fit them into Schoology. In the end it all comes down to the teacher and the lessons. The LMS will be a great tool to distribute the opportunities and activities for students to work from, but the difference between myself and the computer teaching is the opportunities I provide for my students to learn. Schoology will be the program  I will use for my class because of the many options it has. Even with a Learning Management System, I will still need to provide the learning.