Edmodo 1 – Introduction

Mr F are we using Edmodo today?

Mr F did you read what I wrote on Edmodo this morning?

 I love how enthusiastic my daughter is about her homework, thank you

Mr F will you be on Edmodo after school?

Can I please show the class the video I posted on Edmodo yesterday?

Mr F, my brother said he would’ve loved school if he’d had stuff like that

Miss? Why don’t we use Edmodo?

I’m worried that your kids next teacher might find it hard to inspire the class if they don’t use Edmodo too

 I’ve been putting off writing a post about Edmodo for some time – at first because I didn’t really use it after I signed up, then because I wasn’t too sure what to do with it, then I got a bit carried away with it and forgot – and then, they upgraded it so I figured I may as well wait and see what happens.

So let me put it into perspective for you –

• Every member of my class is now a regular user of Edmodo – EVERY member.

• Nearly all homework is set through Edmodo

• That homework is returned to me through Edmodo – by EVERY student (I’ve never had that)

• I can mark work and give grades via Edmodo

• Correspondence with parents is becoming increasingly dominated by Edmodo

• I use Edmodo as my base-point in class

• Yes, my students do use it a lot to ‘chit-chat’

But…

I have had so much more ‘independent’ work handed in to me than before we integrated Edmodo into our learning…

 So the big question… What is it and why the enthusiasm?

 In their own words…

 

I won’t bother with a walkthrough style set-up as the one provided by the guys at Edmodo is thoroughly proficient…

              http://edmodo.pbworks.com/

Why does it appeal to my students and their parents?

Simply: because it looks and behaves like Facebook or Twitter.

BUT… it is designed specifically for educators.

 For me, the main issue with education authority-provided web tools is that they pre-date the ascension of Web 2.0 and unfortunately they just don’t cut it in the real ‘cyber’ world. Edmodo does.

NB: I prepared this post on the Monday evening. On Tuesday morning I received word that head office was not happy with my use of Edmodo for a variety of reasons. On Thursday I am having a conference with the bigwigs to explain my choices. I’ve made the decision to keep the post as normal because even if they stop me using it with my class – many others will not have that problem and I still wish to share with everyone the many wonderful positive uses that I have found with Edmodo. I will make posts far more frequently than I intended (I planned for one a week) so please keep coming back… and many thanks to all the wonderful people on Twitter and other forums who have shown me their support – thank you.

Future posts: Edmodo In Class, Edmodo Assignments/Homework, Edmodo Social Utility, and Edmodo-whatever-else-I-think-of-that-doesn’t-fit-into-the-other-categories