28 | FEBRUARY 2018 | WWW.TECHLEARNING.COM
LMS: POWERSCHOOL
DISTRICT: COMMUNITY (IL) SCHOOL DISTRICT 300 (27 SCHOOLS, OVER
20,000 STUDENTS, OVER 1,200 EDUCATORS)
What they love about their LMS: “By creating
an onboarding curriculum to orient students to the
Chromebook and Google apps as well as systems
for obtaining support, we were able to have students
fully engaged in PowerSchool learning activities
such as discussions, polls, and formative assessments
during the second week of school,” says director of
digital literacy and innovation Anne Pasco. Since
they began the rollout in 2016, they’ve seen “an
increase in teacher-to-student feedback, differentiated
learning activities, student ownership of learning,
and collaborative teacher innovation.” Pasco also
appreciates PowerSchool’s intuitive interface, ease of use for learning
analytics, and focus on K–12 environments.LMS: BLACKBOARD
DISTRICT: ALPENA (MI) PUBLIC SCHOOLS (9 SCHOOLS, 3,800
STUDENTS, AND 195 EDUCATORS SERVING OVER A 600-SQUARE-
MILE AREA)
What they love about their LMS: “This is our first year using
Blackboard Classroom,” says superintendent Dr. John R.
VanWagoner II. “Our staff looked at multiple LMSs and found
Blackboard Classroom to be easy to navigate, yet comprehensive
enough to do what we want. This includes the ability to adapt
it to a competency-based education platform. Our junior-high
and high-school students take over 900 online classes per year
and Blackboard Classroom will allow us to be less dependent
on vendors and empower our own teachers to blend their
classrooms or offer 100 percent online courses.”LMS: OTUS
DISTRICT: NORTH SHORE (IL) SCHOOL DISTRICT 112 (12 SCHOOLS,
339 EDUCATORS, 4,076 STUDENTS)
What they love about their LMS: Eighth-
grade science teacher Ida Fiore says, “After
reviewing many different products, I felt Otus
was the best tool to successfully integrate and
incorporate all my instructional materials and
resources into one location for my students.”
Otus, with its graphically pleasing and intuitive
interface, is “essentially the Apple version of
LMSs.” Fiore says her students have become more
organized learners with Otus. “Their executive
functioning skills have improved significantly.
Otus encourages students to be creative and
active learners by allowing them focused access
to instructional resources. As a result, they are also better researchers,
who work to critically evaluate the quality of various content. The
Otus system has also increased learning accountability as my students are required to independently manage their own learning activities.”Science students
at Elm Place
School in North
Shore School
District 112
conduct an
investigation.A student at
Community School
District 300
engaged in digital
learning.Students at Thunder Bay Junior High School in Alpena Public Schools benefit from online classes
through Blackboard Classroom.LMS