In the fall of 2011, Shelby County administrators received training in the use of Edmodo, a social
network geared towards teachers and students. This network resembled Facebook, but is more
secure and private than its predecessor.
Only students, parents, and teachers are granted access via security
codes preventing outsiders from joining.
During the spring of 2012, my principal wanted to acquire
feedback from our teachers regarding the administration of the Discovery
Education assessment (mentioned in the previous post). We decided to distribute a survey via Edmodo
and have all teachers respond just before leaving for spring break.
This survey consisted of three questions related to
Discovery Education. Teachers were
encouraged to share their opinion regarding the best way to administer this assessment
for the 2012-2013 school year. Bar
graphs were created from the teacher's responses. This will be an easy way to
determine how the majority of the teachers would like to assess our students
next year.
Edmodo has been implemented system wide for the Shelby
County School district. The Edmodo web site allows individuals to join groups based on thier position and/or interests. Some of these different groups include:
administrator groups, community groups, elementary teacher groups, middle
school math teacher groups, and so on.
In order to join these groups, you must have a group code
that is sent to you by the creator of the group. This ensures the security and privacy of this
network.
Also available through this network is a social calendar
that may be useful for upcoming school events and closings.
Edmodo has been proven to be a fast, reliable way to acquire
information from our teachers in a paperless and easy-to-interpret format.
One of our fifth grade teachers, Mr. Daryl Hyde, has been
using Edmodo with his students during his reading instructional time. Students are encouraged to respond to
questions based on chapter books they are reading in whole group and small
group times. Students are also able to
access Edmodo from home. This helps
strengthen the home-school connection as well as give students another
opportunity to complete in class assignments while at home.
Mr. Hyde purchased ten netbooks for his classroom to help
supplement the use of Edmodo during the school day. The use of these notebooks also helps Mr.
Hyde’s students to work in small groups and to strengthen their collaboration
skills. One of Mr. Hyde’s students
stated that she loved using the netbooks and Edmodo because it made her feel as
if she was on Facebook during the school day.
Future uses of Edmodo include parents having access to
student grades and assignments from home.
Edmodo is proving to be one of the many 21st
century techniques used by ChIS and Shelby County Schools!
I love the idea of Edmodo and hope it continues to grow and "catch on" in Shelby County Schools. I think students will view this type of communication as being more social, and it won't "feel" like school. I think the one caveat will be making students understand that even though it may be more fun, it's still school, and they can't use their text languages and shortcuts to the same degree. Great post, Stevi.
ReplyDeleteOur teachers are also using Edmodo to communicate information to students and parents. I have seen it used to distribute assignments and study guides and for students to give feedback on what they are reading. This has been great for the students to create a dialogue about a book!
ReplyDeleteI am encouraged to see that my future 6th graders already have been exposed to this program. I can't wait to pass along this information to our sixth grade teachers.