However, I have come to love using the free Edmodo, especially for project-based instruction. Edmodo looks like Facebook so students are immediately primed to love it. It offers a functional classroom management system and a huge variety of activities. One benefit to teachers is the vast community of Edmodo users, organized by curricular subject, special education and professional development. Edmodo also offers SchoolTube and a variety of other applications. More importantly, it is a closed system. Entry is by invitation with a special code, and once everyone has joined the group it can be locked so no one else joins. Posts are moderated so digital citizenship can be reinforced.
Teachers can create polls and quizzes that are instantly tabulated, or they can assign online readings or upload more detailed assignments. The teacher can then assign grades for completed assignments and quizzes in Edmodo and export the page as an Excel spreadsheet. There is also the option to award badges to each student, and teachers can easily create additional badges. Edmodo is extremely easy to navigate. It is so easy that clever students can figure out how to create a teacher account! Last spring one of my students joined the group as a teacher and started giving assignments and awarding badges to her friends. That could be a drawback, but it provided a teachable moment and helped the student realize that she really is pretty smart after all.
I get frustrated with Edmodo’s library and folder system, however. Everything anyone posts from one of my groups is in my folder – regardless of who posted it. It can be challenging to ensure that the correct items are in the correct folders to share with a specific group of students. If I only had 28 students it would be manageable, but as a media specialist I have about 300 students in 3rd-5th grades who are using Edmodo, and some of those are also in clubs I sponsor – requiring more folders. Since Edmodo is also used by our school system for group communications, the file library also includes everything that my media specialist colleagues have attached to a post. However, Edmodo links with Google Drive, and my students are already familiar with using Google Docs, so we can collaborate on documents relatively easily.
Usually when classes visit my media center we have an information media skills lesson. Class visits have to be very efficient because of time restrictions, but longer units can be continued over several weeks. Students need to “buddy up” to use computers if there are more than 20 kids in a class, but it is easy for me to monitor students for on-task behavior because of the configuration of the room. During any activity using computers we employ “each one teach one” and “ask three before me” strategies so students can help each other get past software quirks without having to wait for me or their teacher. My hybrid fixed-flex library schedule let students who might have missed class come in the library any time to finish their assignment, or post from class or the tech lab if the teacher allows.
Using the Edmodo site for project management in the library required that I set up each grade level group and then had each student create their personal profile to join the group. Once each student has joined the big group, I assigned them to smaller groups by homeroom, which gives me more manageable groups. Since in our school system media specialists don’t have access to Infinite Campus, using Edmodo let us manage assignments and grades online.
In my media center half of the student desktop computers are PCs, and half are Linux-based Thin Clients. This has accidentally proved beneficial, as we have discovered that students can access blogs via the Thin Clients that our network filters block on the PCs. When sites are blocked, I have to ask our district’s network administrators to unblock the site. It’s time consuming, but once a site is cleared students at other schools can access the tool.
Edmodo is so easy to use and offers so many different resources for students and teachers that everyone should use it for their classroom. Students will be engaged and will expect you to instantly respond to every post. And did I mention it is free?