In February 2011 - I believe I read about edmodo on twitter – I get a lot of good ideas there. I investigated and I found an interface that I believed that students would find easy and convenient to adopt into our classroom learning community. Until then I had been making use of various wikis to accomplish a “blended” learning approach. Edmodo has the distinct advantage of privacy, membership and invitational structure. Together the students and I decided to experiment with edmodo. All of the students signed up using the group code. Many of the students downloaded the edmodo app onto their ipods.
Because it was an “experiment” I did not have any expectations. I was pleasantly surprised!
I was able to post folders with many links, interactive activities, and documents that my students could access. I was able to send individual feedback to students and they were able to respond privately also. Using the poll function, I was able to gather some “assessment for learning” data. As a teacher, I was excited to be able to give so many differentiated opportunities for my students to explore at home.
Students were excited to be able to access our pdf interactive whiteboard lessons at home so that they could focus in class on listening and actively participating in the discussion. They enjoyed the convenience of getting class announcements through their ipods. Some students even posted questions in the evening for extra help – and if I was available I replied. A portfolio assignment allowed them to make use of the edmodo platform to share their work not only with the teacher but with their classmates. It was particularly exciting to find that many web apps actually function within the edmodo interface ie. Quizlet, prezi, youtube, swf files, etc.
We worked with Edmodo for the duration of the semester and it was a great success!!!
I know that my class and I only got started – but I am very excited to try it again in the fall!
I look forward to further opportunities to share these exciting experiences with others.
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