Technology Reflection Instructional Use of Edmodo

 

Description/Experience

The demonstration was about a social networking site designed much like facebook but for teachers and students to use. It is not only a great way for teachers and students to communicate with each other but teachers can also post assignments for the class and the students can submit it all on the site. I defiantly think this social network is a great tool for teachers. I think students would be very interested in using it because it is so much like facebook.

 

Application

The students that I am placed with are only in second grade so they are a little young to understand how to use this technology but with parent or teacher help it may be possible. It would definitely work better for middle school children but an example lesson could be to post a video and a question about the video. The video that is posted could be about something that the students will be discussing in class the next day. It would be a way to get them interested in the lesson to come and start thinking of questions and what they would like to get out of it. After watching the video the students would answer the question by posting their answer. As students post other students could also comment on what their classmates wrote.

I would know that the students did the assignment and learned from it through their posts and comments. I would also be able to tell the next day in class when we discuss the video and begin the lesson.

1.       Teacher would need to do is figure out what the topic of the next lesson is going to be.

2.      Find an educational video that goes along with the topic and lesson

3.      Post the video and question

4.      Students watch the video and post their answers

5.      Students and teachers could comment on each other’s post.

6.      Discuss the video and begin the lesson the next day in class.

 

Reflection

Pedagogy-Content:

The way I created my lesson and using this technology as a part of it I made it so that the video online was the opening of the lesson to get students intrigued and excited about what will be taught in class the next day. So in this case the students wouldn’t really need to know anything before they watched the video.

              

Since I did my lesson a little bit different the only thing I could think of would be that the students re not interested in what the video is showing or that they do now understand the question. Although the helpful thing about this site would be that students could read their classmates posts and get a better idea of what the video is about. So in a way the students are working together and sharing their opinion and knowledge.

Technology:

• It’s a great way for the teacher and students to communicate even outside of class. If the student has a question on their homework for example, they could post their question on to the teachers wall and either the teacher or another student could answer it. It can also be used for assignments and its an easy way to grade and track their assignments because right after it is graded it gets put straight into the teachers gradebook and on the students grades automatically. Parents can also have access to the students account which could be good to see how their child is doing or even message the teacher.
• It is pretty easy, you can just google it and it seems to be rather easy to use once in it, especially for those students who have a Facebook since it is so similar.

Technology-Pedagogy:

• The technology is used because the teacher posts the video and question on to the site and the students answer it by posting.
• If the technology wasn’t involved the video would have to be shown in class or the link to the video would have to be given to each student along with the question, then the submitting process would have to be done in class as well or would have to be emailed to the teacher. This would be more difficult for the teacher because each student would be emailing their answer individually. The students also cannot learn from each other or see what their classmates posted when it is done this way.
• Be sure to check that the students are answering the questions and there aren’t any taunting or inappropriate posts.

Technology-Content:

• The students could take their time and watch the video as many times as they need to before answering the question. They can also read their classmates posts and learn from them.
• By learning from their classmates through reading the posts and since I used it to open up a lesson it gets them excited and gives them insight on what they will be learning about the next day. The teacher could also post other sites or info that the students could look at if they were really interested in the subject and wanted to learn more before the class discusses it the next day.

Technology-Pedagogy-Content:

• The video would introduce the lesson so it would give students an insight and help them to create questions and gain knowledge before a class discussion the next day.
• It opens up more opportunities for teachers and students, they can try new things. It also gives students more time to do the assignment and learn from their classmates posts. They can also have a whole discussion/debate right on the sight if they want to discuss something.
• I would discuss a little but about what the homework assignment was going to be about making sure they all knew how to access everything.