In addition to the new homepage and other site updates we’ve been working on this week, the Schoology team has been busy gearing up for next week’s FETC conference in Orlando, our third year in attendance.

Everyone is looking forward to another exceptional event and, of course, to meeting our ever-growing Schoology community in Florida. We’d love to hear about your experiences and the creative ways you are leveraging the platform to better teach and engage your students.

We’ll be in Booth 436 — stop in and say hello. Just please — not all at once. There are hundreds and hundreds of you, after all!

And if you are not yet signed up for Schoology, we would love the chance to introduce you to our collaborative learning platform, walk you through its unique functionality, and share with you the many, many ways it can enhance the learning process for you and your students. Please stop by!

We are very excited to be attending the ISTE 2011 conference in Philadelphia! We have exciting news to be released at the confernece, including several new features:

- Google Apps Integration
- Library: Shared Resources
- Test/Quiz: Question Importer

Schoology is now eligible for E-Rate

Schoology has been accepted into the E-Rate program. Now non-profit private schools, public schools, and libraries can receive funding to go towards purchasing Schoology with their E-Rate program by using the following information:

Provider: Schoology, Inc
Spin #: 143035378

To learn more about the E-Rate program click here. If you are interested in purchasing Schoology through your E-Rate program please contact Bill Kindler, bill@schoology.com or Jonathan Hume, jhume@schoology.com.

Visit us at Booth 2948!

Exhibitor Hours:

Monday, June 27th: 9:30am – 5:30pm
Tuesday, June 28th: 9:30am – 5:00pm
Wednesday, June 29th: 9:30am – 2:30pm
See Interactive Floor Plan

Be the first 200 people to visit Booth 2948 and pick up your free Schoology T-Shirt!

We look forward to meeting you at ISTE 2011 – Enjoy the conference!

For those of you who are learning about Schoology for the first time, here’s

…

@drezac : Kids are being bombarded with “connect, connect, connect.” But when they enter class, we tell them to “put everything away.” #IETC

@henrythiele : Use cellphones for texting in quick exit slips #IETC #IETCcell

@drezac : Another idea: allowing students to use their cell phones on field trips to engage, take pictures, reflect. #IETC

@jorech : Learning about going paperless #IETC

@france98 : Daggert keynote should waken some ears at #IETC #edreform. From start I think he has right idea.

@jjanczak : Thanks to all attended Blooms Textonomy Using Cellphone in Schools today at #IETC. Here is a link to presentation

@gicart : #IETC Daggett preparing students for their future not our past

@leperez1: Daggett: Reg laptop looks clunky to kids. Computers are coming in many objects, including watches. #IETC

@cheritoledo : IETC in Springfield, IL is a great place to put faces to the virtual…

Schoology is extremely excited to head out west to Springfield, Illinois for the 17th Annual Illinois Education Technology Conference (IETC). Judging by the IETC schedule, all attendees will have a fun-filled day of learning and broadening their knowledge of educational technology. It is exactly where we want to be!

For those of you who will be attending the conference make sure to come visit us in the Exhibit Hall.

Where can we find Schoology?

We will be exhibiting at Booth 140-141. We are excited to have a double booth with classroom seating which will allow us to give demos all throughout the day. The days can be long so if you’re looking for a place to rest your feet stop by and kill two birds with one stone by learning about Schoology.

Conference Location:

Crowne Plaza Hotel

3000 S. Dirksen Parkway

Springfield, IL

Exhibit Hall Hours:

Wednesday, November 17, 2010             6:00pm – 8:00pm

Thursday, November 18, 2010                7:30am – 5:15pm

Have a Twitter Account?

The official Twitter hashtag for IETC is #IETC

Follow @Schoology & #IETC to get great…

One of the conference highlights was the GaETC Treasure Hunt. How it worked, vendors who wanted to participate in the treasure hunt submitted a question about their company that they wanted to share. Once the exhibit hall doors opened attendees were able to walk around with their treasure map of questions and attempt to answer everything correctly. After completing, attendees would go to the treasure chest and claim a prize.

Schoology’s question and answer for the GaETC Treasure Hunt:

Q: What is Schoology releasing in the month of November?

A: Schoology iPhone App

It was great to see how excited these educators were to hear that we are coming out with an iPhone App. Although many of their schools do not allow mobile use in the classroom it was wonderful to hear how many schools take advantage of classroom sets of iPods (which can also support the free Schoology iPhone App)

Be sure to keep checking…

• Keynote Speaker: Jeanne Robertson
• Featured Speakers: Tammy Worchester, Leslie Fisher, Howie DiBlasi, and many more.
• Special Events
• Schoology Booth 101 located in the Exhibit Hall

Not sure where to find us? Check out GaETC’s Interactive Floor Plan:

Schoology Booth: 101

Exhibit Hall Hours:

Wednesday, November 2, 2010          10:30 AM – 4:30 PM

Thursday, November 3, 2010              9:00 AM – 3:30 PM

The buzz online has already started with many regional Tweeters chatting up about the next few days. We will make sure to keep you updated while we are there so follow…

Besides enjoying the gorgeous 80 degree weather, we have already gotten settled in and set-up our exhibit booth (Booth 211 – Make sure to stop by and say hello!) for tomorrow’s show. And boy is it going to be a great one! We will make sure to post pictures of all the action later today. What we are extremely excited about is the T+L Attendees will be among the first to see the new Schoology redesign and experience all of our new features at first hand.

That’s right, Schoology just got easier!

Here is a little preview of what to expect when you sign into Schoology this morning:

Site Redesign

We have compacted our interface to give more room for the main content area. We have also updated a number of…

TSETC is intended to highlight advancements in education technology and to help illustrate how instructors can best adopt and utilize these technologies. “The goal of this conference is to provide educators with practical strategies and tools to engage all learners. We hope that all educators leave inspired and motivated to pursue innovative practices while becoming agents of change,” states Eric Sheninger, Principal of New Milford High School. The conference will begin with a keynote speech by Lisa Nielsen, and will continue with professional development sessions, workshops, and virtual learning labs for attendees to explore new tools with experienced instructors. Nielsen, who has worked for more than a decade to support New York Cityschools, is also the…

We are happy to announce that the Tri-State Educational Technology Conference (TSETC) site is now live!

Visit the website at http://www.tsetc.org

The TSETC is the technology and learning conference devoted to educators in the tri-state area.

This year’s conference is all about change – and the tools and programs that will enable this change. Our goal is to provide meaningful, exciting learning opportunities that focus on actively engaging all learners and inspiring educators to pursue innovative practices.

Registration is now open!

Although TSETC is free, you must register for the event. Space is limited. So make sure to check your calendars and register before it’s too late.

Call for Presenters is open!

Deadline: September 10, 2010

Share your education technology experience at the Tri-State Educational Technology Conference by presenting on October 2, 2010. Sessions are not intended to promote products and should instead focus on lessons learned with emerging technologies. Presenters are expected to keep sessions as vendor neutral as possible.

We are currently accepting presentation proposals for TSETC 2010. If you are interested, please read the following guidelines and fill out the appropriate Presentation Proposal Form. You will be…

How did TSETC come to be?

You can never stop learning. With today’s use of the Internet and social media it makes it even easier to learn and connect with one another. Our system is devoted to improving communication and collaboration inside and outside of the classroom. We not only make it happen through our learning management system, but feel that it is extremely important to create this relationship with educators. Being huge advocates of enhancing the digital learning space, we wanted to hear from those educators that are EdTech role models. I started a series dedicated to those wonderful EduBloggers with our “Behind the Blog: EduBlogger Series“. I had the opportunity to chat with a bunch of these tech savvy educators, and in the process was able to learn what realistically was going on in the school systems.…