A few weeks into the Edmodo experience, I felt it would be a good idea to see how things are going.
Initially I had planned to try it out with my Y11 classes and also with my Form...but I soon rolled it out with all my teaching groups.
As might be expected, some pupils took to it more readily than others. I think sometimes we focus on the fact that teaching colleagues either "do" or "don't do" ICT (to employ a crass generalisation!) - but in fact the same is true of our students; they are not ALL technophiles, purely by generational accident!
With my Form group, I have found the Calendar feature to be particularly useful. I have entered all school-related events specific to them, as well as all their birthdays. I have explained to them that they need to login to Edmodo regularly (showing them that I have it running constantly in the background), so as to benefit from all its functionality.
With my teaching groups, I have gradually been working out how to make Edmodo work best for me (and them!). It took me a week or so to establish that I needed to use "Assignments" to get the best out of it. Some of the differences between Americanish and English had to be navigated: students "turn in" their work, for example, for "grading"...but these are minor wrinkles. I have not yet made much use of the facility for sending links and files - but this is child's play to do.
Things I have not yet established:
- can the font colour be altered, to allow me to highlight errors in work done, so that students can see what to redraft?
- how do I import students' grades into my (Excel) markbook?
- there are probably other things, but I can't think of any right now!