How Edmodo Matters to Educators and Learners?

Before we start talking on how Edmodo matters to educators and learners, we need to know what Edmodo actually is.

“Edmodo is a social learning platform for teachers, students, and parents”. Edmodo in many ways is a social networking platform the 

exception being that it is dimensionally oriented and focuses on bringing educators, learners and parents together. It enables the teachers connect with students on a “cooler” platform where the teacher seems to appear more of a friend than a superior forcing you to learn your lessons. Thus Edmodo in one way or more focuses on closing the gap between the teacher and the learner bringing them together and helping them to learn from each other enhancing their individual selves.

How Edmodo matters to educators and learners?

Edmodo for an educator, is a great platform where the educator could discuss the ideas and practices with others in the globe coming out with interesting strategies to keep the students interested in the learning process. It enables the educator to bring his class into a livelier place where theories are best explained through experiments.  This can be done by using games and educational applications available in the market. Edmodo could be used to create interesting polls, assignments for students and the students learning them quick can be awarded with interesting badges thus gamifying the entire learning process.  Even the resources needed to solve the problems can be made available by the educator on Edmodo so that the learner doesn’t waste much time in exploring unnecessary resources over the open internet. The teachers can share each other’s resources online and helping themselves with reduced workload in making notes for every lesson they need to teach.  The teacher should encourage the students to create, collaborate and communicate with their fellow mates helping them not only learn but build their individual characters.

Why Use Edmodo?

10 Innovative ways of using Edmodo.

Thanks to Edmodo Blog, here are some great ways educators use Edmodo.

1. Science Fair Exhibition Hall: Create a “Science Fair” group and send everyone in the school the group code so they can view Powerpoint, Glogster, video summaries of student science projects.  A great Virtual Exhibition to showcase student work.
2. Playground: Kids are kids and sometimes they just have something funny that they are dying to share.  Create a “Playground” group where students have free reign to post whatever they want (with guidelines for appropriate use of course — encourage expression and creativity, but reinforce the need for boundaries and appropriate behavior).
3. In the News: Create a Current Events Group and allow students to post articles and blogs that are relevant to classroom curriculum.  Review posts at your morning meetings.
4. 21st Century Field Trips: On your next field trip, leave the worksheets at home.  Divide students into small groups, (ensuring at least one cell phone is available in each group).  As they wander through the museum or landmark, post scavenger hunt questions on the Edmodo mobile app to which students race to respond.
5. Lunch Count: Create a simple poll each morning – as students walk in the door, keep Edmodo open on your classroom computer and ask them to ‘check in’ on the poll on their Edmodo account.  Presto – instant lunch count, attendance, or whatever information you need to track.
6. Data Tracking Diary: Create a Data Tracking Group and use it as a filter on your calendar.  Students can enter daily data points on the calendar (growth of classroom plants, weather charts, countdown to Spring break), then filter the calendar to show only these entries.  Print it or export to .csv and use the data for graphing or qualitative analysis.
7. Announcements and Special Events: Celebrate milestones by creating a classroom group that highlights birthdays, college acceptance, sporting events, and other milestones in students’ lives.
8. TV Show/Educational Material feedback in Real time:  Have the students “homework” be to watch a specific show (PBS, News, Weather Channel, etc) and have them send notifications on interesting parts of the show in real time to their fellow classmates. Start class discussions while students are in the comfort of their own home and get them thinking about what their learning from the broadcast and how it can connect in school. Then talk about it in class the next day (I know sometimes some students won’t have TV’s but you could offer it as extra credit, just an idea!).
9. Physical Education: As in case of Data Tracking Diary, it could also be used in Physical Education. Have students assigned a pedometer and have them enter daily step totals. Set goals for the students or groups to reach week to week (Could have pedometer costs but could work with PE teacher, or even incorporate math by having them find averages, daily overall step totals, etc.) Competition can even be set between the groups to see who can get the highest total (integrating Physical Activity in ANYTHING these days in my eyes is a great way for the mind to wake up and be ready to learn!).
10. Utilizing the Vacations:  In the past teachers have talked about students being sad they can’t “Edmodo” over the summer just because there is no need with the students to do it. Well keep the learning going by posting a “Flat Stanley” project for the summer. (Even though it may not consist of a grade it’s a great way to keep the students learning) Towards the end of the year have students create a Flat Stanley (small paper figurine they create and decorate) and have them take it around to different places over the summer and share their experiences with other students. Have the students have a template with questions like where did you go, what did you learn, what was the most exciting part, etc. This can help students learn about different parts of the country (or world) based on their classmates travels. This allows them to stay in the loop with other students as well as facilitate learning over summer “brain breaks”. This can be done in the summer, or even over breaks!