Classroom Communication, Online!

The need for constant communication inside and outside the classroom is imperative in the modern day classroom. The more connection that students have with teachers, the more they are going to turn to the teacher as a resource (within reason, of course!). One of the best tools for online communication I have found is at www.edmodo.com.

Edmodo is a fantastic tool that is basically Facebook for the classroom. It takes all the fun social aspects of Facebook and puts them within a site that is loaded with easy-to-use educational tools for the teacher. You can use Edmodo to have secure classroom discussions, allow students and teachers access to assignments, file sharing and uploads, and grade book tracking. As a teacher you can easily make quizzes, polls, and assignments right on the website which can even be set to be automatically graded. It also works as a great formative assessment tool as students can respond to assignments and teacher comments easily and quickly.

The main drawback, as with any technology use in the classroom, is that it implies that students have internet access at home. While this is becoming less and less of an issue, it is so imperative that the teacher is aware of whether this is the case for each student. If even one student is stuck without Internet there is a large chance they will be singled out and be disadvantaged in the classroom.

For more information on Edmodo you can check out the website www.howtoedmodo.weebly.com or even watch this short video: