There are three main aspects to Edmodo: Social/collaborative; virtual classroom; and applications. I find the social aspect to be slightly lacking at this point. I was pleasantly surprised to see a few of my colleagues at my school that were already Edmodo members. Communicating with colleagues is a great thing, but from what I have seen many of the members are possibly fake? People that don't write good English; or ask really strange questions? I'm purposely sounding confused because I'm not sure if I'm seeing some kind of spam or something. These are my first impressions, so maybe down the road things will get better here. It would be a good tool to collaborate if the right people were on there. Twitter it ain't.
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| www.edmodo.com |
Finally, purchasing apps is a mixed bag for me so far. Some of the apps that are available look to be useful in this climate; some maybe not so much. Some are free, which is cool; but some are really expensive. I went ahead and used my credit card to buy some store credits. After I had purchased a couple of apps I discovered I had actually only purchased a one-year subscription. The store was less than up front about that. Oops. That's dirty pool. It's like the Amazon store: great potential, but too much 'nickel and diming.'
I really do love the potential of Edmodo. I would love to learn more about it. So I will keep exploring and discovering if the reality lives up to that potential. A mixed bag so far, but very intriguing.
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ReplyDeleteI'm still in the shallow end of the Edmodo pool. Still, I can see it has a lot to offer if you put some effort into it. Inarticulate teachers? No, it couldn't be...hahahaha. I'm a crusty old grammarian, but I try to look at these social networking environments as more akin to spontaneous conversations than research papers. I like seeing commas in the right place as much as anyone, but if in a rapid-fire digital world, we probably will do ourselves a favor if we cut others a little slack. Now, when it comes to students communicating with me, I have a whole different attitude. They need to learn the rules before they can break them.
ReplyDeleteI know, I get that. That's not what I'm talking about. I saw stuff like: "I am having hard time find standards for Florida Middle School computer class." It's really awkward English, and seriously, you're a teacher and you don't know where to find standards? I don't know, could be I guess...
DeleteI haven't used Edmodo since I initially signed up for one of our MET classes. I like it's function as an online classroom, but I think Moodle is just as good for that. I didn't dig too hard to find ways to connect because I didn't see it being a tool that I would use, nor did I find any real connection in the groups that I joined. It could be just me not having an interest or knowing of another tool I would use instead.
ReplyDeleteNo, I actually agree with you in many ways. I like the overall site, so I want it to work, if you know what I mean. It may not. :)
DeleteI was thinking the same thing as I read more and more. I knew I had used it in another MET class before, but I liked using Moodle a lot more, it seemed more fluid as an online classroom. I think though, Rob you mentioned the collaborative aspect and that would be a better use for it in my opinion, almost create an online social gathering, maybe a little more formal and less hectic than Twitter Chats.
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