As an educator of middle school students, I have been denied the opportunity to use our district’s LMS.  The reasons no longer matter because I just found out that Haiku increased the number of students that a teacher can have on a free account.  Sign.me.up.

Which I did.

Last week, I introduced Haiku Learning to my world history students.  They created an account in our World History class and immediately began working on two different assignments.  One was a discussion topic.  Finally, we get to use an LMS with a threaded discussion instead of the linear fashion that we used with MyBigCampus and Edmodo.  Students posted their initial response by Friday 9PM.  Can I tell you how much I love the extended due times? I think my kids even like it.  It takes the pressure off from having to finish their assignment before the bell rings.  Of course, that means they have to remember to finish it once they get home.

The second assignment was a WikiProject.  Students were to revise their Popplet to include new information, upload it to their WikiProject and then include a reflection.  I’ll be honest, it was a bit tough to explain how to add a content block because this was virgin territory to my students.  Boy, I wish that I knew Haiku Learning had upped the free student accounts.  I would have been using it from the beginning of this semester.

The only problem that we’re experiencing right now is that our iPads do not include the newly revised Haiku app specifically designed for iOS7.  Our CRA has been busy getting  our tech tools ready for SBAC so he’s had little time for frivolities.  Bummer.  But my kiddies are going to Safari and things seem to work well (for now).  But as soon as testing is done…believe you me, that app will be installed on our iPads.  I want my students to have the full experience of using an LMS.  =)  This is one happy teacher.