Week 9 - Reflection

Using Edmodo for teaching and learning

As educators we can use Edmodo for teaching and learning as a way to enhance the experiences that students have with what we would already normally be doing in our classrooms. Posting assignments on Edmodo gives students a chance to see written reminders of directions and due dates that we have stated orally.  Putting assignments online also gives us the chance to attach files, link websites, and many more tasks. Posting our learning targets, success criteria, and assignments for parents and missing students creates transparency and helps absent students get caught up.  Students never have to worry about losing an assignment.  It is helpful for us to have saved and organized digital copies of assignments that our students turn in.  Sometimes we can have conversations with students through Edmodo that would be uncomfortable for students to initiate.  Linked parent accounts create total transparency and trust regarding such conversations. We are all connected in an Educational chain, students, teachers, parents, and a large professional community. The Edmodo student management, give us the necessary resources for us that have more than one class and subjects, ensuring a very efficient workflow. It also helps us assign instructional content and create assessments, with the advantage of a grading tool which parents and students can access.

A Paperless Idea.

One of my main problems teaching is the way I manage paper-based assignments, quizzes and all the written work related. Sometimes I cannot find one or more student work and is when I get in trouble trying to be fair with my students.  I can use Edmodo to generate a digital file to store all the students related work. I can also establish a three way communication teacher-students-parents to improve the teaching and the learning experience in and out of the classroom.

A Learning Community Idea.

The objective is to form a group of teachers or staff or both that share common academic goals and attitudes, who meet semi-regularly to collaborate on class work. The group have to meet every specific period of time and we can use Edmodo to post their minutes of the meeting and then any follow up or discussion that occurs between meetings. Also we can use  Edmodo to post to the entire staff important documents such as blank field trip permission forms and such that all staff or educators need access to. By posting them in Edmodo they remain in all libraries and are accessible by all the people in the learning community.

A Cultural Exchange Project Idea.

A Cultural Exchange Project give students the opportunity to learn about other world cultures by connecting your classroom with classrooms around the globe via an Edmodo group created by Teachers. Cultural exchange programs expose students to people from different cultural, religious, geographic and socio-economic backgrounds and in so doing provide the opportunity for students to develop a greater understanding of diversity in USA and worldwide. They allow students to interact with and learn from people who are different from themselves and to participate in new and unique experiences beyond their own communities. Cultural exchange assists students to develop positive relationships with others, understand a broader range of perspectives, and develop the knowledge and skills needed for participation in our multicultural society.

Jorge Villarreal.