An Introduction to Edmodo

I was first introduced to Edmodo at a conference that I attended back in November 2012.  I was attending the "Best, New Strategies for Using iPads, Phones, Mobile Devices and Other Cutting-Edge Technology to Strengthen Classroom Content Learning" conference hosted by Mr. Zachary Walker.  It was during this conference that he showed the attendees how Edmodo could be used in a large-group setting or in a classroom setting.  I thought it was a pretty neat platform but unfortunately I "thought" I did not have enough time to implement it into my classrooms until the next school year.  After a little more dabbling in the Edmodo world over the next couple weeks I decided that next year was too late!  I needed to do it now!  So I implemented it in 3 of my 6 classes for 2nd semester.  I use it for my Algebra 1 class and both of my Algebra 2 classes.  I decided to wait to use it for my 3 PreCalculus classes until next year.  (We already use Webassign for PreCalculus that has an online homework platform built into it.)  

So far, my students seem to "love" Edmodo.  They appreciate the fact that I post daily assignments, written notes, videos of example problems (when I get to them), and practice quizzes for them to view at their leisure.  A few of them have started using the cameras on their smartphones to send me a picture of the problem they are working on, but may be at a stopping point.  This helps me because I can view their work and then reply to them from my laptop, my iPad, or my iPhone by using the FREE app.  I really enjoy the accessibility that the Edmodo app provides to me so I can answer students questions in a relatively quick manner.

During the last week of January, I attended the FETC (Florida Education Technology Consortium) Conference in Orlando, FL.  Edmodo was the social networking platform that provided links to each concurrent session, workshop, or keynote session that would be presented at the conference.  Since a person's schedule did not afford them the luxury of being able to attend all of the sessions they may have wanted, Edmodo provided a central hub where all participants could join using a group code and still be able to access any resources or links that were provided by that session's speaker.  This opened my eyes even bigger!  People had to know about this wonderful website and app!  

Therefore, my dear friend Scot and I have embarked on a new journey to get the news of Edmodo out to our teaching peers in our school corporation.  So far, we have recorded 3 video tutorials for teachers to view as a quick means to get them introduced to Edmodo and its highest regarded features.  We are going to use Edmodo as our "central hub" to share new and exciting technology web tools with our corporation.  Yes, this could be done without Edmodo, but with it's simple interface (similar to Facebook) and its multitude of tools to be able to share items with one another is priceless!  So "Thank You" Edmodo!  You have now added one more thing to my teaching career that has made it even more enjoyable.