For many LM students, as well as those across the district, the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year marked the end of an era. The online Learning Management System (LMS) utilized by LMSD in recent years, Blackboard, was finally replaced with a new software system called Schoology. The origins of this shift trace back to 2018 when the district tasked a group of secondary school teachers with identifying a successor for Blackboard that would be easier to navigate for both students and staff. They eventually landed on Schoology, and five years later, the switch has gone into full effect, requiring both students and teachers to adapt.
Although Schoology intends to provide users with “a more streamlined, robust experience” by combining all the necessary software and resources into one platform, many students found the initial adjustment difficult. On a February afternoon last school year, with Super Bowl Sunday just days away, all LM students received their first email through Schoology: a message from Assistant Principal Fadeyibi enthusiastically announcing a two-hour delay on Monday. But just 35 minutes later, Dr. Fadeyibi sent out another announcement through Schoology, provoking an equivalent amount of outrage as the first had sparked joy.
“Hello staff and students, Please disregard my last message about a 2-hour delayed school start for Monday. This has not been confirmed or verified. The message was posted as a part of staff training and was inadvertently sent out to students and staff. Thank You.”
In between that fateful winter afternoon and the beginning of the current school year, students received no emails from or about Schoology, a lack of communication that led to a difficult transition for some students. For example, when asked to describe what his immediate reaction to Schoology had been, Quan Feldman ’24 explained, “I just had no clue what it was.” Like many of the older students throughout the district, he was accustomed to using Blackboard and admitted that the seemingly sudden switch left him “confused and distrustful” of the new software. Still, Feldman maintains that the versatility he and his peers possess, especially when it comes to technological changes, allowed him to adapt within the first few weeks. He even spoke favorably about some of the new features, such as the customizability that Schoology offers.
While it is going to take time for students and teachers to grow comfortable with the new system, Mrs. Kannengeiszer, an English teacher at LM who has also served as a Schoology Ambassador since 2016, believes that the switch will make everybody’s life much easier. She described Blackboard as “clunky and outdated” and pointed to Schoology as a “one-stop-shop” for most of the online tools students need. From the teachers’ perspective, Kannengeiszer says, “It does a good job at providing options for teachers to create a curriculum in a blended learning environment that is also much easier to navigate.” She also mentioned many tools, previously unavailable on Blackboard but included with Schoology, that are useful to the entire community such as quiz creation, parent features, and the ability to connect to PowerSchool.
Although Schoology might save time and make online navigation easier, the long-term impact of this district-wide change is yet to be seen. For some, it’s just an update from an older, somewhat problematic system, to a new and improved version.Yet at the fundamental level, both serve an identical process. Brian Yi ’24 recognized that the organization of Schoology sometimes does save him a few seconds, but still says that “convenience-wise, it’s basically the same thing as before.” At the end of the day, he believes that it “matters more how the teachers use” the software, and how much effort they put into organizing their classes online. Mrs. Kannengieszer remains confident in Schoology’s ability to have a significant positive impact throughout LMSD, but acknowledges that it can only be unlocked “if the teachers are provided adequate professional development with how to use” the new and more advanced technology.
