A colleague at my school recently introduced our department to a great website called Edmodo. It's very Facebook-esque, but designed for school use. The basics:
1.You create a class group, which your students then join. This is great because they can't really wander to any other pages because you can only see groups you are invited to join (which a teacher is administrator over).
2. You can post assignments, links, polls, etc. to the group page. The students can turn things in via the website (and it notifies you ever so conveniently), or you can have conversations through the note feature.
I've used it with my 10th and 12th grade classes and they have loved it! Other teachers who have used it have also had a lot of success. One immediate perk is that they enjoy the familar layout- the assignment stays the same, but it seems so much cooler now. Also, the turn-in rate went up a lot for assignments that could be handed in via the website.
I'm by no means an expert on the site, but it's been a lot of fun and very helpful. We also created a department page which is a nice place to share ideas or just talk :)
Aubrey,
ReplyDeleteThank you for making this post.
Thanks for the idea. I'll check it out.
Do you ever run into problems with students who don't have access to computers? Just curious.
ReplyDeleteThis looks really helpful!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Aubrey. I want to try it out!!!
ReplyDeleteWow, that seems pretty cool actually. Its like a super easy, user friendly classroom blog in a format that students will really "get." What a great idea! I wish the video would have explained more about how it works or that I could actually go in a play around with it before signing up. My only worry would be what Brianne mentioned, students who don't have access to computers. Thats why I feel like a lot of these new, cool, outside-of-class technologies would be more supplementary than an integral part of the classroom. But I guess it totally depends on where you are teaching.
ReplyDeleteThis site seems really useful for classrooms with access to computer labs. I love the idea that the students can connect with each other in a social way that's safe and not as distracting as Facebook. It's great for teachers to have these free tools to engage students in responding to texts.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to experiment with the "Polls" feature, since students love sharing opinions.
Using the site for journal writing and prompts would also be interesting.
Good ideas everyone. I really enjoyed playing around with Edmondo. How fun to have so many responses to Aubrey's comment! Hey Aubrey, we want more ideas! :)
ReplyDelete