Monday, August 15, 2011

Keep the Collaboration Going with Edmodo

I admit, the more I've been exploring and using Edmodo, the more I've grown to love it. Last week I spoke with a Science teacher who really wanted to find new ways to get her students to collaborate with each other. She already uses Google Docs on a regular basis so students can collaborate and co-create various projects together. However, she had a difficult time keeping up with all the documents in her Gmail account.

Together we decided by adding Edmodo to the mix, organizing and keeping up with her students' documents would become easier. How so? By sharing a Google Doc with a specific group of students, she would only need to click on the group to see their document. Plus, when students ask for help they can post questions to the whole class or ask for the teacher's input while they are writing.

After my discussion last week I wanted to continue my post on ways to use Edmodo, with this week focusing more on collaboration. Here are a few ways you can use Edmodo as a collaborative tool:

Create a cross-classroom shared group: Teachers have the ability to create groups and share the group code with students from another classroom. Students can work together outside of the classroom and keep the creative process flowing.

Share a link to a Google Document: Teachers can share a public Google Doc URL with students in Edmodo. Students can open the file, share their responses, add images and comments in real-time.

Create a group request form: To generate more collaboration and communication amongst students, teachers can have students make suggestions for forming groups. You may consider asking your students...

What do you want to call your group?
What are we going to talk about and do in this space?
Who is your group for?

For more ideas and ways to use Edmodo, check out their blog.

Image from renjith krishnan

1 comment:

Scott Armstrong said...

Mandy, many teachers at my school (North Forsyth) have Edmodo accounts this year. I used it in class for the first time today and like it so far. I'm very interested in seeing how other teachers use it--it seems to have lots of potential.