Edmodo

[Jill Mozejko]

Has anyone used Edmodo in their classroom?

 

Are their any negative aspects of using it that you have experienced?

[Teresa Ilgunas]

I really used it this year, since the student server we had crashed. It was great. We primarily used it to turn in work (Language Arts assignments--Word, PowerPoint, even images). It was EASY to get the kids signed up. I did print out the members' usernames because there's always a student who forgets his/her username (sometimes you have to try a few times before one works--lots of usernames are already in use). I could download their document, leave comments and re-upload it for them to make corrections. We also used it for discussion questions. Example: 

Negatives? Well, you need to figure out how you want to organize things...it'll download each file right on your desktop. You may want to have students save documents with name/project, since I usually opened, resaved w/their name and put it in their period's folder. Then I'd delete all the docs saved to my desktop.

Other than that it is VERY easy to use. One benefit...if a computer dies and students have uploaded their file, it's also like a backup copy!

[Jeff Bezler]

I used edmodo this year in my seventh grade english classroom.  I LOVED it.  It was incredibly easy to get the kids signed up, many of them signed up to receive texts from it for alerts, and I loved that I could do polls as well.  I used it for leisurely discussion and serious assignments as well.  The kids were actually a little upset when I archived the group just two weeks ago (school ended a month ago today). 

 

I only had one problem during the year.  A student posted something inappropriate, but I was able to delete it immediately, and the student was very apologetic -- he had a bad day at home.  There are some risks with open forums, but edmodo is very easily controlled.  Fortunately, my administration was supportive of my decision making abilities (or at least stayed out of my hair about it), so I didn't have any other issues.

[Jill Mozejko]

I am excited to hear both of your experiences!  I don't have any experience with it so I am going to fool around with it and see how I can use it to assistant students in collaborating with other students about homework, studying for tests, and for discussions.  Thanks so much!

[Katie Muhtaris]

Yeah, I would agree it's one of the best and safest platforms.  The only issues I had were occasional borderline inappropriate comments but I looked at it as a great way to help the students learn about digital citizenship.  I also really like Kidblogs for the same reason.

[Kenneth Jones]

I think the comments below are helpful. My district is pushing Edmodo. I used Collaborize and really liked it : easy, reliable, etc. I have recently experimented with Enter the Group - seems it has all the features of the others and more. I really don't think you can wrong using any and there are a lot of others too! Good Luck!

[Monique German]

The three middle schools on my district have used Edmodo this summer as a way to promote summer reading and to keep on touch with our students. The ease of use for blogging has made it fun for all of us. I am planning to use more of the features next year so am looking foward reading the responses to your question. 

[Katherine Ruddick]

I used Edmodo a bunch of times this past year just to experiment, and plan on integrating it more fully next year.I found that my high school Spanish students really got into it and they would even post messages in Spanish to the class that weren't directly related to the task at hand--the upside of course is that they're using Spanish improvisationally and personally, with the downside being that they're not totally on task (which I was ok with as long as they were using Spanish). I agree with Katie that it is a good way to help students learn about digital citizenship. I would say that you'd need to work with your students to set ground rules before launching into it like I did. The "Library" tool is another great aspect of Edmodo: you can compile multimedia files and links into folders and then share with students or other teachers connected to you on Edmodo.

[Biophiliac]

yes i've used it and no i haven't experienced anything negative with it. Enjoy

[Lisa Mims]

I used Edmodo for the first time this year, and loved it! I loved it, my students loved it! It is very simple to use. The communites are great for establishing another component of your PLN. They have a library where you can store all your stuff. They even have a parent component. I met two of my pen pal classes on Edmodo, and we shared projects, movies, comments, etc. I had my students turn in their assignments, and I graded them using Edmodo. Excellent online learning platform!

Here;s a link that might help if you decide to use it:Cybraryman Links for Edmodo

[Juan Calderon]

I started using EdModo toward the end of this past school year. My sixth graders used it mostly to share polls with each other.
It was a time for me to experiment with it. Sometimes I would post links to helpful websites about what we'd be learning at the time. This next year I hope to also do what some other commenters have done, sharing files.
One new feature I'm anxious to try out is their badges. I'm hoping the kids will get motivated by them.

[Sharon Keehner]

I love it--it allows me to manage papers with out paper!  I especially like it for my Photoshop class--we don't need to print projects which saves money and time!

 

The best thing is it is easy to set up--the kids so all the work and it's not much more work than creating a profile and submitting a code.

 

USE IT!

 

[Adam Cross]

For those who have used Edmodo in the classroom:

How do deal with students without computer or internet access at home?