Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Edmodo... giving it a whirl

I like to try new things - especially where technology is concerned. Thus, with one of my classes, I've decided to try Edmodo. It's a social site, with a Facebook feel, that is designed for teachers to use with their classes.

The comments I've loved from the kids are "now there's no excuse not to do homework" and "oh no! You're making me work with a computer again?!?!"

The second one highlights something that I think many would not suspect - our kids are NOT as IT literate as we think they are. There are many kids who only know how to use MXit, and nothing else. They can take photos and videos and bluetooth them to friends, but don't have the first clue how to put a proper video together. They don't know or use Twitter. They do use Facebook, but that's a 2nd choice for many.

At first, I was really surprised to see that, in many cases, in this area, I knew a hang of a lot more than the kids. Of course, I know the bare essentials about MXit, and have no intention of learning more, because I have WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook, and would rather use them with the people I need to connect with.

It's going to be an interesting little experiment, to see how it works, and whether it delivers on the promises it makes. Having also used Obami (the SA version) with a different class, it's going to be interesting to see how the two compare. Although, Obami are due a massive upgrade sometime this month, so that probably won't be a fair comparison.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has used both, and made a decision for one, rather than the other. As a school we're looking at selecting one of them and then training all the staff in using it.


A feature I really like of Edmodo is that parents can sign up easily too (no email required), with a unique code, to see what their kids are doing. That's put the pressure on a bit, because now I feel like I have the parents' eyes on me all the time. That's not necessarily a bad thing - it's probably good to know that SOMEONE is watching what I do in class. It's just that now I am feeling the pressure more than before.

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