What’s It Like? Haiku Learning is a cleverly designed LMS geared towards extending learning beyond the classroom. The system lets teachers embed content from over 40 different websites into pages they can custom design for their classes. In addition to creating and managing their classes, teachers can create rubrics, assessments, and tasks using sophisticated but straightforward built-in creation tools. Keep up a gradebook, attendance rosters, and inter-class communications in this centralized, cloud-based learning hub. The site integrates well with dozens of websites and online tools, and it’s especially well integrated with Google Apps for Education: teachers and students can use their Google login to access the service. Features for standards-based grading are also built in.
Price: Free/subscription
Grades: 6-12
Pros: Great tools for embedding content and staying in touch help to connect students with teachers and course content.
Cons: Building pages and assessments can be a timely process due to the overwhelming amount of resources and material that can be embedded.
Bottom line: With planning for content and design, and some restraint, teachers can create and manage relevant pages ideal for extending and transferring learning.