Pretty darned blown away by Schoology, an LMS based on a social network that seems as both as easy to maneuver and as accessible as Facebook. In fact, the thing kinda looks like FB as students create profiles -- profiles that could grow into an academic digital portfolio over the course of a student's school career.
Does it have a grade book? Check. Can you take attendance? Both in class and schoolwide. Can students and teachers create profiles and share links, class material, class/homework, projects? Check.
But wait, there's more! (I feel like I'm selling a ginsu knife...)
In Schoology, users get: dropboxes, class analytics, blogs, bookmarking, collaborative workspaces, calendars...
Oh, and it monitors student profiles for abusive language and content and sends immediate notice to the teacher.
Oh, and the base version is free.
And for a set of fees, schools can choose what add-ons -- including archiving, different forms of back-ups, branding -- that they individually need.
I haven't used Schoology yet; heck for all I know it might be totally clunky. But beings that it is based on social tech and social learning, it represents another move -- along with Elgg, and to an extent Google Apps for Ed -- to further integrate the reality of the digital environment as it exists today into the reality of the formal learning experience. That's the key.
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