Edmodo
By: Emily Atwood, Elizabith Barbour, & Jessica Bryant
Edmodo is a "social learning platform" website for teachers, students, and parents. It is marketed as the "Facebook" for schools.
Edmodo is designed to get students excited about learning in a familiar environment. On Edmodo, teachers can continue classroom discussions online, create assignments online, give polls to check for student understanding, and award badges to individual students based on performance or behavior.
Communication
Students can post comments to their teacher or each other and can reply to comments.
Homework Assignments
"I use Edmodo for online homework assignments. It allows me to group students into small groups and give assignments to each group. That way I can give differentiated reading homework to my students. I post the homework on the weekend and then it is due at the end of the week so the students can decide when to work on it. Students without internet access are given time to complete the homework in class". -Elizabeth Barbour
Student Profile Page
Each student has a profile page that they can set up by uploading a picture, adding a quote, career goal, and style of learning. Students are identified only by first name and last initial. The profile page shows their teacher or teachers, and their classmates.
Edmodo is used by over 33 million teachers and students worldwide!
Educational Uses
-A popular Edmodo app is called "Blendspace". Teachers use this app to create lessons for my students both to access at school and at home. Here are the links to some of those lessons:
-“Doggy Dilemma” math lesson on perimeter http://blnds.co/1b9gHl8
-Math Homework http://blnds.co/1k2N7hT
-“What is eating the moon?” science lesson http://blnds.co/1cKOD6P
-Increase engagement in class by using the posting and commenting to answer written comprehension questions so the students can collaborate electronically with their thoughts.
Educational Strengths
-Easy for students to access. Most students are able to figure out how to get to their assignments and change their profile quickly.
-Teachers can add a variety of media to Blendspace lessons—videos, games, interactive websites, word files, quizzes. Appeals to different learning styles.
-Teachers can sort students into different groups and assign lessons to each group—provides opportunities for differentiation.
-Parents can access student accounts to monitor learning.
-Free games and apps available.
-Teachers can moderate comments to make sure they are appropriate before being posted.
-Use apps to create projects
-Access to many different websites/ apps through one username and password
-App store is easy to navigate
-You can filter apps according to topic and grade level while using the App Store
-Very secure. Teachers can lock and unlock the access code as needed
-Only those in the group are allowed to see posts and comments
Educational Weaknesses
-Teachers report it takes some practice to learn how to create and post assignments and lessons.
-Edmodo doesn’t work on all computers and laptops, some apps such as Blendspace don’t always load.
-The Edmodo app on iPad doesn’t open lessons and assignments completely.
-Students can post comments and reply to comments, but doesn’t allow for them to create blogs or email each other.
-Teachers must have signed permission forms from parents in order to set up account for students.
-If parents fail to return permission forms, it requires assignment modifications for those students.
-Teachers have to use caution with different Terms of Use within individual apps in Edmodo.
-Internet access is required for homework assignments.