Have You Taken a Look at Edmodo?
After hearing about Edmodo from my supervisor, I decided to explore the site. Reading up on Edmodo, I learned that digital student work can be uploaded and graded and commented on. I figured that I would dive in and see what I could come up with. I am currently participating in an afterschool program with the media specialist at one of my buildings. I wanted to start small and have students participate without it interfering with regular class work. So far, we have created two groups and they have been given a writing assignment in Word. One group has already uploaded their assignment for grading. The other group should be completing their assignment this week. The site has a strong resemblance to Facebook so; the students are very familiar with the look and feel of the site. The students really enjoyed completing and uploading their assignments. I look forward to expanding the use of the site and using it with the teachers in my buildings. Please share your experiences with Edmodo….
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by David Dean on
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I teach 6th Grade Computer and Technology Integration and I am doing it with one of my 6 classes this year. The benefits of my students easily being able to communicate was obvious the first weekend we created our class. I had students making posts, asking what homework was due the following Monday. It was fantastic. Everyday the students came to my room, they would log in and see what I had shared, the day or week's schedule, or what other students had shared.
The downside to Edmodo is that many of my students did not have Facebook and really had no idea how to be a productive member of a social network. There would be dozens of posts asking "Is anyone on now?" Students didn't really understand the "rules" behind bulletin board type messaging. However, this was a great chance to show my students how to do this and model being productive.
If you are really interested in creating an online social network within your classroom community, Edmodo is a great service. It's free, and you can easily add students to your classrooms. Just remember to always monitor your classrooms on Edmodo and be sure to send home a permission slip informing parents about why you are using Edmodo in the classroom. I had every students' parent sign a permission form to let them know we were using this in class and all of my parents had no problems with it, even though many of their kids weren't allowed to have Facebook accounts.
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Permalink Reply by Danielle Cripe on
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I was very excited to us Edmodo for the purpose of sharing and creating a social community within my classroom as well as having quizzes, assignments and activities posted all in one place for them. From what I have read, it seems to be a great site.
The only downside, and the reason I never actually got to use it, is because the Terms of Service says users should be 18 or over. Since I teach 7th grade and many of my students aren't even 13 yet, I was advised by my administration not to use it. Kind of a bummer because I heard such great things! Good luck with your exploration of it!
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Permalink Reply by Christopher Casal on
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It doesn't say "18+".
It's designed for the k-12 environment. The Terms of Service, section 3ci says:
"(i) You represent and warrant that you are solely responsible for complying with the Child Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA"), which requires parental consent for online collection of personal information from children under 13. "
Basically meaning it is open to anyone over 13, and anyone under 13 with parental consent.
We have a template permission slip we have parents sign for stuff like this.
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This is what the first line under "Terms" says on their website:
IMPORTANT! IF YOU ARE UNDER THE AGE OF 18, YOU MUST HAVE YOUR PARENT OR GUARDIAN READ WHAT'S BELOW AND AGREE TO IT FOR YOU. IF YOU DON'T GET YOUR PARENT OR GUARDIAN TO READ AND AGREE TO THIS, YOU DON'T HAVE PERMISSION TO USE THIS SITE. ALWAYS GET AN ADULT'S PERMISSION BEFORE GOING ONLINE.
We are allowing our 7th graders to bring their own devices in January and our school has been very concerned about the legality of using some of these tools in the classroom. Since they have been working with lawyers, they decided not to ask about creating a parent permission slip of sorts because they we are admitting that we are 'breaking the law'. I have heard of many schools of doing this and was hoping we would do something similar. But, alas, we're not because of the idea that it's under our watch that they will be accessing these tools, not under the parent's watch.
As a 7th grade teacher, there are many of my students who are not 13 and we are very limited to which 2.0 tools we can promote with our bring your own laptop program. It is quite frustrating!
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You are not breaking the law. The Terms of Service is a complete document and outlines proper use for those under 18.
You quote that first paragraph, but if you are over 18 you basically ignore everything below that paragraph.
If you are under 18 you read on. Those under 18 have to abide by the subset paragraphs below that opening statement.
This line is key: "IF YOU ARE UNDER THE AGE OF 18, YOU MUST HAVE YOUR PARENT OR GUARDIAN READ WHAT'S BELOW AND AGREE TO IT FOR YOU."
Under 18 can use it, if they read the full document, agree to it, and have parent consent.
You are right, a lot of sites are limiting, but Edmodo is not one of them.
There are a lot of web 2.0 resources you can use that don't require emails or have student age limits, site which you have full control over. You could use Wikispaces.com. Create a page and create users, no need to student emails. You can also create a blog and have students post writing samples and such.
Here are 2 of the sites I use with my 3-5th graders
mrcasal-afterschool.wikispaces.com
mrcasal.blogspot.com
And here are a few of my fellow teachers sites:
5th grade Collaborative Team Teaching (CTT) class
http://ps10class5404.wikispaces.com/
5th grade CTT blog - Free Write Share Blog
http://ps10class5404.blogspot.com/
4th grade teacher
http://msmccormack.wikispaces.com/
Kindergarten teacher
http://msbuie.wikispaces.com/
5th grade teacher
http://r-cohen.wikispaces.com
Class 5-403's Homework blog (created and maintained by s 5th grader)
http://class5403.blogspot.com/
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Well, that's what I thought too. But I wasn't going to be the one going against the grain and getting reprimanded since I still have so many under 13.
Was there a way you got your school on board with the parent approval? I'm hoping that will be an option after the initial newness of the bring your laptop to school dies off and parents are beyond the concerns of how they will be used effectively.
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We are in the process of getting permission slips signed for such things, not Edmodo specific.
I work within the NYC Dept of Ed. It works far differently than a normal district I'm sure. We have an Internet Acceptable Use Policy and Internet photo/video/work permission slips that are City issued.
We are about to do ePals email with the 3-5th graders and the City gave us the permission slip for that.
For the sites I've listed in my post above there is no need for anything beyond the Acceptable Use policy and photo/video/work permission slip.
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Permalink Reply by Richard Perrine on
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Don't mean to hijack this thread, but anyone compare this with Edu 2.0? I have been trying to get a detailed features list for Edmodo and particularly interested in live chat room features.
Thanks.
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I had never heard od Edmodo and I think this is great, because students get to share their work and have positive feedbacks on them.
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