In my last post I mentioned that blogger.com is a blocked website in my county. I began thinking about other websites similar to blogs that I could use with my students for the upcoming school year. While I know it is not the same as blogging, I thought I could use Edmodo to give my students access to responding via typing. After completing this week's conference I learned about Edmodo and tried signing up for anaccount to explore it more. Edmodo is a social media website for students. Students can still respond to posts created by the students and by the teacher, it just has a different set up.
Elizabeth wrote on her blog about using blogger.com in her second grade classroom very minimally. Students could respond to a question in one or two sentences. This seems small, but for a second grader, this could be a large task. Students would also need to learn how to navigate between different blogs to create comments. If I used Edmodo with my classroom, I could easily be an administrator and I could create discussions where students could respond to my question and one another's responses. I know that Edmodo is not the same exact thing as a blog, but I feel that it is a similar concept. This is one way I thought of that I could get around blogger.com being blocked in my county!
My co-worker has been raving about EdModo. She works at a different school now but she uses it with her students and I think she said a couple of parents. She has found that the students really enjoy working and engaging with this site. I have never used EdModo but I can see the benefits to using it in a classroom. I just want my students to use the computer more and expose them to more oppertunities to online communication.
ReplyDeleteFor younger students, I think that Edmodo is the way to go for many of your "blog-like" experiences. In Edmodo, the feed comes to the student, so they don't need remember a buch of different sites. You can set up the groups and access yourself, so the students have to do it. Plus, the restricted access of a site like Edmodo keeps security a top priority.
ReplyDeleteEdmondo is like a version of Facebook but not blocked by the county. Students know how to use it, they like it, and teachers can set the blocks and preferences as they choose. I think it would be a great idea for you to use it.
ReplyDeleteI wrote a review on edmondo in a previous class but that laptop died with all my work. I loved all the features except I felt like I would constantly check the site, or get notifications someone posted during dinner, etc. I know all teachers do work outside of school but it did bring it to a different level where my phone was constantly going off because of a post.
Now that I have used it I might consider a time where posting has to wait, then again I'm posting on this blog at almost 2:30 because I've been busy with my other class, so maybe its not fair to have a time limit.