Technology Reflection: Instructional Use of Edmodo

Description/Experience

In the last technology seminar meeting, Ms. Yuhase from Clay Batelle High School came in to give us a tutorial on an educational social networking site called Edmodo. I was already pretty familiar with Edmodo because the Teacher Education Coordinator from my PDS, Mrs. VanHorn, had all of the members of my cohort create an account. We use Edmodo to ask questions, share information, and stay in touch with one another. Edmodo is basically Facebook for the classroom. It is set up in a very similar layout and is very easy to use. Teachers can use Edmodo to communicate with their students, post assignments, and provide students with immediate feedback. Students can ask the teacher questions, ask each other questions, and turn in assignments on the site. Since social networking is so popular these days, Edmodo provides a neat way for students to interact with one another and use technology in an educational way.

Application

I think this technology could be applied to an assignment that my mentor teacher and her 4^th grade students are currently working on in Language Arts. The students are learning how to write a standard five paragraph essay, and the class was assigned to write their essay about spiders. In the classroom, the students have a large stack of spider books they can use to gather information. They are also allowed to use different safe online sites. If the class were to have an Edmodo account, I think they could use it to share interesting facts that they are learning about spiders with one another. For instance, the teacher can post a question like “What interesting facts that you have learned about spiders would you like to share with the class? Please share at least two.” For homework (or during extra time in class), the students can respond to the post with their two facts and then read the responses of their classmates. This could give students more information to add to their essays.  The teacher could also post website links that would be beneficial for the students to explore and post the graphic organizer that the students first worked through when learning how to write an essay.

 

Reflection

Pedagogy-Content:

• In order to make the content comprehensible to students, it is important that the students first have a thorough understanding of how to navigate the Edmodo site. Then, the site can be used to share ideas and questions, post website links, and post pictures. When sharing ideas, students will bring with them their ideas for their spider essay and their two interesting facts about spiders that they did not know before. Then, the students will become the teachers as they share their spider facts with their classmates.

Technology:

• According to the Edmodo website, “Edmodo provides a safe and easy way for your class to connect and collaborate, share content, and access homework, grades and school notices. Our goal is to help educators harness the power of social media to customize the classroom for each and every learner.” After exploring the site thoroughly, I personally think it is very easy to use for both the teacher and the student. It has a very simple layout and is easy to navigate. Parents can also have access to the site, which can increase parental involvement in their child’s education. In this day and age, technology is a huge part of everyone’s life, and Edmodo provides a great way to integrate popular technology into an educational setting.

Technology-Pedagogy:

• Using this technology can allow students to respond to a question presented by the teacher and then read the responses of their fellow classmates. With this particular activity, learning occurs in a variety of ways. First, the teacher must instruct the students on how to write an effective essay and then how to use the Edmodo website. Then, the students are responsible in finding their own information about spiders and planning for their essay. After that, students post their interesting facts and learn about spiders from each other.
• When it comes to classroom management, the teacher must consider how well students work on computers. A lot of times, students are easily distracted when they get on the computer and immediately want to play games instead of doing what they are supposed to. In order for the activity to be effective, students must focus in solely on Edmodo.

Technology-Content:

• Using this technology can allow the teacher and students to share information about spiders. The class page on Edmodo could also be used to post links to useful spider websites, which will enable student discovery and research. The class page could even be used to share neat pictures of different types of spiders from around the world.

Technology-Pedagogy-Content:

• Through the use of this technology, students could get extra insight into the content of their essay (spiders) by reading the responses of their classmates. They could also use Edmodo to access useful spider websites and refer to the graphic organizer they use to outline their essays. This technology also provides students with a variety of instructional strategies – direct instruction (from the teacher), individual inquiry and discovery (through research), and learning from peers (in the responses).