2. Description of technology. - Edmodo has been compared to other social networking platforms such as Twitter, Face Book. The important difference is this has been designed for use in classrooms and gives the teacher all the control both when setting up, and using their virtual classroom with Edmodo.
3. Some issues. - With such a well refined explicit teaching companion as this the issue of student access to computers is raised. I would imagine this will only be an issue for the current generation of teachers. With the rate our current technology gets outdated, there is a constant stream of perfectly good but not the latest and greatest computers being 'disguarded' by users of the latest technologies. I hope that the government and education department will see this as an opportunity to enrich the educational possibilities of our schools and enrich students lives who's families may not be able to afford a computer.
So with the vision that the computer will be a standard booklist item like a calculator is now, hopefully within the next decade the issue of computer access will be minimalised.
This will of course eliminate the 'my dog ate my homework' excuse but look forward to hearing future concoctions of excuses - maybe my dog ate my keyboard?!?!
4. Educational applications - Can set assignments or activities for completion during or after school and the student only needs an Internet connection and their password to access it. Larger files such as video / audio can be embeded to the page as well creating a rich environment for both teachers and students.
Another plus is that it is a safe environment for students via a teacher defined access code for anyone the teacher wishes to to access their space. All communication is open to the teacher- ie no private messages which eliviates the temptation of off task behaviour.
5. Other thoughts. - Communication is such a vital part of effective education. The best part of Edmodo is that it uses the greatest communication tool ever imagined (so far anyway) the Internet, and creates a safe controlled environment where a teacher has real control and can see exactly what is happening throughout the virtual classroom - yes, it really gives them eyes in the back of their head!
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