Schools are closing. Advice on teacher’s communication with students?

Question

We&rsquo;ve just been informed that my daughter&rsquo;s middle school is closing as of next week. Everything will be done online but teachers are scrambling at the last minute to setup various programs with which they are painfully unfamiliar. The two platforms to which they have defaulted are Edmodo and Remind. Are there any others with more robust features but relatively easy to set up for the nontechnical person. Are Slack and Discord appropriate technically for the middle school group? Recommendations for more involved solutions are also welcomed, including any for K-12 in general.

genbit · Accepted Answer

I believe Zoom was made free for K-12 now, so at least for video conferencing this could be used, maybe in combination with Slack.

stvmlbrn · Answer

Loom just announced that education accounts are free. Forever. https://www.loom.com

bradtx · Answer

Gradefinity is a testing solution/micro LMS which accommodates online and in-person testing: https://gradefinity.com
It was primarily built to serve as a Scantron replacement, so classroom management features are limited to online testing and course announcements.
Full disclosure: I work a full-time job (at least for now, save for any layoffs) so support would be somewhat limited. I can also take down the paywall for as long as needed for any schools affected by Covid-19
Other free options:
- Moodle (more technically involved, needs to installed/hosted by someone and setup can be challenging)
- Canvas (I haven't personally used this, but it seems to be growing in popularity. From what I understand it is somewhat similar to BlackBoard)