Edmodo Again

This is another post on the topic of Edmodo.com.  After some initial hesitancy, I am really liking this website now.

Edmodo provides me with a central repository to collect all of my assignments.  It allows me to communicate work and homework with students and parents.

Edmodo - Home via kwout

One of the side benefits of Edmodo is that it provides me with a concrete record of what I have assigned.  For example, I posted an assignment on Edmodo in which I instructed students to write a story using the website, 5 Card Flickr.  Furthermore, I instructed students to describe the process of using the website.  Many students simply wrote a story and neglected to include the requisite description on their blog.  With my Edmodo post, I had written proof of my instructions.  The students could not claim that I had not told them to write on their blogs; they all had the opportunity to read the directions for the assignment on Edmodo.  Edmodo eliminates the misunderstandings of oral communication.  All my assignments are described in writing.

This process also provides me with an opportunity to refine in detail what I want out of each assignment.

Edmodo

My plan this year was to utilize an online gradebook and attendance book.

However, I have discovered that our school uses off-line software for these tasks.  So, so much for that plan.

I have been having an on-again off-again relationship with Edmodo.  I have decided again that I will try to use it in my classes.  It will provide a site for my students and their parents to see all their assignments.  As well, it will allow me to keep track of the assignments.

I will not be using Edmodo to receive assignments.  The students work will be either be papers, delivered to me in person; or else, items posted on their personal blogs, which I will be able to peruse.

Indeed, since all of the assignments will be listed in the gradebook our school uses, Edmodo is actually redundant for me.  We will see.  If it gets to be too tedious to maintain, then I will be off-again.

Reform

Last year, I was an elementary teacher. This September, I will be teaching secondary.

In preparation for my new assignment, I wanted to draft an outline of academic expectations. I thought this would be good for the students to receive at the beginning of the year, so they could know what their goals were and what they would be graded against. Also, I thought such a document, or checklist, would be beneficial for parents. It would also be beneficial for my superiors, to demonstrate my planning, and beneficial for myself, to guide the development of my curriculum.

I thought that the provincial Ministry of Education would provide a document for teachers outlining what needed to be taught at each grade level. However, the prescribed curriculum is not so clearly defined.

Quebec is in the infancy of an educational reform. There are new curriculum guides for the teachers. The elementary English guide has a sort of checklist enumerating expected skills for each of the three cycles.

The secondary guide is less specific. I have read through it more than once. It does not provide the same level of specific benchmarks that the elementary guide provides. The information is presented with less structure. In an attempt to extract and organize the information, I have begun creating a mindmap of the guide utilizing the website Mindomo.

SELA Cycle 1 via kwout

I had been seeking detailed instructions. But this, I suppose, is the old paradigm of education. We really are experiencing a revolution, one that is affecting not only curriculum within the classroom, but also the job description of teachers. It is no longer: tell the students this information; it is: help the students practise these skills.

Here is a nice video about today’s students, entitled, A Vision of Students Today, that I found on the website, Emerging Internet Technologies for Education.

Box of Tricks

On his website Box of Tricks, teacher Jose Picardo presents a video that shows how he used some internet resources in his classroom. The production quality of the presentation is good. Jose demonstrates how he used Glogster, Animoto, Diigo, and Edmodo.

He also provides links to examples of work produced by his students. For me, seeing examples of student work is probably the best way to be educated how and inspired to utilize an online tool.

At the end of his video, Jose discusses the reaction of his students to the projects. He admits that the students were not as interested in Glogster and Animoto as he thought they would be. He reflects that perhaps the association of these websites with an educational setting negatively affected the students’ attitudes. It is rare to hear an educator provide a candid evaluation of his students’ reactions to web tools and projects. It was great to hear a teacher reflecting on their own teaching, and it inspired me that I should do the same (and expect my students to do the same).

Grademate

I have not posted an update on this blog in quite some time. The end of the school year is a busy time for all teachers, plus we are moving to a new town and a new job.

I will switch from being an elementary teacher to being a secondary generalist.

In preparation for my new assignment, I wanted to establish an online gradebook.

I have three sites bookmarked on Diigo. The most popular of the three is Edmodo. 361 people have Edmodo bookmarked, versus 43 for Engrade and 8 for Grademate.

Usually, when I am choosing software or an online resource, I opt for the most popular choice. So, I went to Edmodo first. However, Edmodo is not what I thought it was. It is not a site to keep track of grades; it is a private message board which can be utilized by teachers to communicate with their students. Edmodo is popular, I believe, because it allows students to send assignments to their teacher. Also, it is very Web2.0, with the ability to embed a variety of media.

Next, I tried Engrade and Grademate.

They both look about the same and offer pretty much the same services. I decided to go with Grademate for subjective reasons. I like the style and feel of it.

I still have some exploring to do, but for now, I think I might use Grademate for grading, in conjunction with Edmodo for sending and receiving assignments.