Lore: another excellent free "blackboard"

When this website was introduced by Mimi and Anna for the first time, its name was Coursekit. Now, it has a new name: Lore. Although I like the old name better, the convenience the website provides stays the same. I remember that when I student taught in a high school last semester, one day, my cooperation teacher looked depressed and asked me if there is anyway she could upload assignments' instruction and everyday's powerpoint slides so that students could download them for review. I asked her why the school did not provide students and teachers with the class management system like "Blackboard" used by NYU. My CT told me that due to budget cuts, the school cannot afford this kind of class management system any more. We tried different websites, but none of them was designed for classroom education. As a result, we were not satisfied with any of them. From then on, I noticed that how important a free class management system it is! After Anna and Mimi introduced several wonderful websites like Lore to us, I sent my CT an email and shared what I learned in the class. After trying out two of them, my CT called me and said she was so excited to find such useful websites!

I chose Lore to use for my own class. I am teaching in a language school at weekends. Every week, I teach kids Chinese songs, and we watch Chinese vedio together. Parents usually ask me if I can send teaching materials to them so that they can help kids review them. Although I would like to share all the teaching materials with them, I cannot say "ok, no problem". The reason is that some files are to big to be sent by emails. Now, I upload all the textbooks I use, songs I teach and many other stuff on Lore. Parents can easily download these documents. In addition, some of my adult students use Lore as a good community to discuss their learning experience with others.

In a word, as a teacher, I really benefit from using Lore. I want to thank my educators for introducing such a fantastic tool to us!