I have no idea why I didn't think to complete this tutorial before creating an Edmodo for my first Independent Learning Project. However, after being somewhat familiar with Edmodo this tutorial was simple to follow while still teaching me SO MUCH. I knew the basics and this tutorial provided much further knowledge about using Edmodo and all of it's many features. Lynda.com tutorials are easy to access and contain so much useful information. I will definitely be accessing this resource more often while I am a student at Florida State.
The best part about this specific tutorial is the way I was able to see what the instructor was doing on the website. Capturing screenshots made it easy to follow and will be good resources for my future Edmodo classroom (see screenshots below). Another thing I liked was how the instructor showed me what each post looks like from a students profile.
The coolest feature about Edmodo that I learned in this tutorial is the quiz customization. There are so many different options to choose from to make the quiz just the way it needs to be (see notes below).
Notes
Edmodo can teach students about digital citizenship and how to use social media in a safe and secure way.
*Join communities on Edmodo, specifically, Digital Citizenship community.
"Range" allows for selection of more than one grade.
Create groups for each class period AND small groups for projects, discussion boards, collaboration, etc.
To customize profile settings: upper right corner - enter profile information - MAKE SURE TIME ZONE IS CORRECT (tests, assignments, due dates will be affected by this).
Left side bar: add school to make connections with other teachers/co-workers; customize URL; email and text updates option.
Choose who you want to send messages/assignments/quizzes/notes to.
Group code or Join URL to invite students.
Parent code connects to students account so parents can only see things posted by their child or the teacher.
Lock the group code after all students have joined.
Teacher can delete anything students post to keep it appropriate.
The clock icon can be used to schedule posts so teacher doesn't post during school time.
Polls can provide important student feedback for the teacher.
*Post a poll the day before an in-class discussion to prompt students and get them excited about the topic.
Customization for quizzes:
1. Time limit
2. Point value for each question.
3. Types of questions (multiple choice, true false, short answer, matching, fill in blank)
4. Edmodo automatically grades everything EXCEPT short answer and fill in the blank must be EXACTLY like the teacher typed it.
5. Preview quiz to see it from students perspective.
6. Give partial credit for short answer, MUST CLICK "CORRECT" first.
Screenshots
I find it fascinating that you can customize quizzes so easily on Edmodo!! I think it saves teachers a lot of time when Edmodo automatically grades it, but automatic grading also raises some red flags with me. How do you feel about automatic grading as opposed to the old fashioned way of grading by hand? I would prefer to grade by hand that way I could gauge where each of my student's are and where I need to focus my instruction. Really interesting project, thank you for sharing!!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I am not a huge fan of the automatic grading. In my future classroom, I will only use Edmodo quizzes for multiple choice and matching questions. The fill in the blank questions seem to cause many problems if they are automatically graded because students may have small spelling errors that I would want to give partial credit for.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was funny that you opened up your post saying that you should've done the Lynda for Edmodo before creating the actual Edmodo page for ILP #1 because I thought exactly the same thing! I didn't do a Lynda on Edmodo this time, but if I decide to use Edmodo later in my career (which I probably will) I will definitely need to utilize this course for it. I was interested to read your notes about how you can tailor your quizzes to your specifications because I wasn't aware of that before. Do you feel like you as a teacher would utilize electronic quizzes more than traditional paper quizzes?
ReplyDeleteYes, I definitely recommend taking a Lynda tutorial on Edmodo before using it in your classroom because it helps so much! I don't think I will use electronic quizzes MORE than paper quizzes but I think I will use both in my future classroom.
DeleteI did an Edmodo page for my 1st ILP also! I didn't even think about looking at Lynda for an Edmodo tutorial either but I'm happy you did because the notes you found are really interesting. Like I had no idea about the parent code, that is so interesting because as a teacher I would want parents seeing what their child is posting, not just every child. I also like the clock icon feature. As I teacher I could definitely see myself using Edmodo and now I know to watch the Lynda tutorial before because theres so much information I didn't know about before!
ReplyDeleteOh I'm so happy my notes were helpful to you! I hadn't thought about doing the Lynda course until I saw a few other students in our class did it for ILP #1. I am so glad I took it though!
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