BP4_Edmodo

Well I finally took the time to see what all of the fuss is all about. Many people have told me how great this tool is in the classroom, so I had to check it out myself. I find that I am looking for a Web 2.0 tool where I can do many things at once. I want it to be a place where students can communicate, see calendars, assignments, and be social. I want to have an online class feel that stretches farther than the 49 minutes a day that I get with my students.

Edmodo is that tool. My last post I talked about Moodle which was impressive, but this tops that for sure.  With Edmodo I will instantly have my students' attention because it is setup like Facebook. I was unsure of what exactly it had to offer, so I just spent the last hour reading the whole user guide. I know what you are thinking...get a life!!! But I had some time to kill before going to a baseball game later tonight.

Anyways, the interface is very recognizable and I love that I can do so many things in one place. Here are some of the great features. I can set up a group for each one of my classes where we can talk, post files, post links, have polls, and assignments. All of this can be done in the privacy of the page unless we want to make it public. Since each student will have their own page, they can also speak privately with each other. Another thing is that I can grade everything right on the spot and the students can see the feedback and the grade. They get notifications as in Facebook which allow them to keep up with all current events.

This is something that I would like to incorporate in my classroom because it would really represent a 21st century classroom. I think that this is something that would not only be helpful for students, but also for parents. Each parent would get their own account. This would allow me to have parental involvement and communication in a consistent manner.

So far I have connected with some communities and teachers. I set up groups for my three preps this year. I am hoping that I can inch them in little by little and maybe by second semester use it full time. For the beginning of the school year I am going to post some intro comments and perhaps some scavenger hunt activities around edmodo. 

My all time favorite aspect is that emodo also has an app for their program. I just downloaded it to my iPhone. This way students can have it on the go like all of their other social media apps. I can't wait to see where this goes. I even connected with Greg Havens as another teacher to collaborate with. You all should give it a try: www.edmodo.com