Edmodo is an alternative method to Twitter of keeping in touch with your class, with much greater privacy. You create classes and each class will get a group code, which students can then use to sign up the site. If you want to, parents can also get a code to see what is going their child’s Edmodo page. You don’t need to worry about students using the site inappropriately as students can only send messages to the teacher or send public messages to the class wall, which ensures that all content written on Edmodo is education-related!
The ‘post’, ‘like’ and ‘comment’ features of Edmodo make it an incredibly useful classroom tool. With a quiet Year 10 class I used Edmodo to create a silent debate forum during class, where students had to respond to controversial quotes about women both from the modern and Victorian era, as an introduction to the ‘Women and the Vote’ topic for GCSE. Students would ‘post’ for a new point, ‘like’ to express they agreed with point, or ‘comment’ to build on or argue against somebody else’s ideas. Edmodo worked really well in this context because you can track who has commented, and also question students further by commenting yourself. A usually hesitant class were then able to build off their ideas in the silent debate to then talk more confidently about the issues in the class.
Another important use of Edmodo is for setting an extended-writing homework or an assessment. You can use Edmodo to set assessments –which you can attach a video and the markscheme to explaining what they have to do (and perhaps giving them some useful tips), which is particularly useful for the more disorganised student as they don’t have to try to remember what you’ve told them in class. The student will get due dates for notifications on the site, and if they signed up with their email address (they get the choice) they will get an email notification that they’ve been set an assignment. Not only can teachers set work on here conveniently but they can also mark it easily on the website, as you just have to click and type to give feedback to students or use the highlighter tool to emphasis good or bad points in a written answer. Once the teacher has given their response, students will get a notification telling them their work has been marked. Students work will remain on the site for easy access to both you and them in the long term, so for example when they come to revise they can re-look at their work, without the risk of them having lost it.
There are also several other useful features of Edmodo. Each student gets a grade book from the assignments they have handed in, so as a teacher you can keep a track of their progress. Furthermore you can also use it as an useful AFL tool. You can set up quizzes so that you work out what areas of a topic students are struggling with, which will also feature on the mark book. You can send polls to students to use for student voice – or alternatively you could use this feature instead of ABCD cards at the end of the lesson. Furthermore, it also allows you to keep track of your class if you have set for example a reading homework, you can see which students have viewed the relevant pages.
Edmodo is therefore a useful classroom, organisational, and marking tool that can transform both student and teaching experiences.
Sarah Jackson
York University PGCE History student 2012-13
The ‘post’, ‘like’ and ‘comment’ features of Edmodo make it an incredibly useful classroom tool. With a quiet Year 10 class I used Edmodo to create a silent debate forum during class, where students had to respond to controversial quotes about women both from the modern and Victorian era, as an introduction to the ‘Women and the Vote’ topic for GCSE. Students would ‘post’ for a new point, ‘like’ to express they agreed with point, or ‘comment’ to build on or argue against somebody else’s ideas. Edmodo worked really well in this context because you can track who has commented, and also question students further by commenting yourself. A usually hesitant class were then able to build off their ideas in the silent debate to then talk more confidently about the issues in the class.
Another important use of Edmodo is for setting an extended-writing homework or an assessment. You can use Edmodo to set assessments –which you can attach a video and the markscheme to explaining what they have to do (and perhaps giving them some useful tips), which is particularly useful for the more disorganised student as they don’t have to try to remember what you’ve told them in class. The student will get due dates for notifications on the site, and if they signed up with their email address (they get the choice) they will get an email notification that they’ve been set an assignment. Not only can teachers set work on here conveniently but they can also mark it easily on the website, as you just have to click and type to give feedback to students or use the highlighter tool to emphasis good or bad points in a written answer. Once the teacher has given their response, students will get a notification telling them their work has been marked. Students work will remain on the site for easy access to both you and them in the long term, so for example when they come to revise they can re-look at their work, without the risk of them having lost it.
There are also several other useful features of Edmodo. Each student gets a grade book from the assignments they have handed in, so as a teacher you can keep a track of their progress. Furthermore you can also use it as an useful AFL tool. You can set up quizzes so that you work out what areas of a topic students are struggling with, which will also feature on the mark book. You can send polls to students to use for student voice – or alternatively you could use this feature instead of ABCD cards at the end of the lesson. Furthermore, it also allows you to keep track of your class if you have set for example a reading homework, you can see which students have viewed the relevant pages.
Edmodo is therefore a useful classroom, organisational, and marking tool that can transform both student and teaching experiences.
Sarah Jackson
York University PGCE History student 2012-13
