Edmodo and Other CMSs

As a Pre-K teacher, Edmodo and other CMSs are tools I have no experience with since they seem irrelevant to an early childhood learning environment.  Since my ultimate goal in the field of educational technology is to someday obtain a position as a Instructional Technology Specialist, I do realize that it is extremely important for me to learn more about these types of tools.  My goal became to search the web to learn more about this system and other CMSs.

From visiting the Edmodo website, I learned that it was created to bring education into the 21st century.  I learned that one purpose of Edmodo is to create connections, which certainly relates to my discussion post this week about the importance of building connections between teachers and students for successful learning. Next I visited the Wikipedia page for Edmodo.  Here I learned that Edmodo is a network that provides teachers with the ability of sharing information, distributing quizzes and assignments, and creating opportunities for communication between other teachers, students and parents.  Next I viewed a Bing video where it was explained that the way in which teachers and students can interact outside the classroom through the social networking of Edmodo creates positive effect inside the classroom.  This video explained that Edmodo is social learning for classrooms.  I learned that teachers create and Edmodo account and then create a class.  They then share a code to their students so that they are able to join the class.  Edmodo makes it easy for teachers to share internet content with their students and other teachers.  I also learned that teachers can also browse and share content recommend by other teachers from across the country, using Edmodo.

Through my new knowledge about Edmodo, I immediately began to think of its affordances for a classroom.  I thought about the statements I had made in my discussion posts about the concern of forming connections between teachers and students so that bonds can be formed in ways that students develop trust, which I believe is extremely important in a learning environment.  Edmodo would be an awesome way to build connections with its social networking style design.  Kids today are very familiar and comfortable with technology, often more than most adults.  Kids today love social networking and text messages.  Edmodo seems like it would really be beneficial towards building connections that allow students to trust their teachers.  Kids might feel more comfortable contacting their teachers with questions or issues through Edmodo rather than a face to face contact method.  Another affordance of this technology would be the ease of contact and communication between parents and teachers.  Many times parents might be uncomfortable going to their child's school or making a phone call to address the teacher about a concern.  Edmodo seems to provide a communication option that might be more comfortable for many parents. 

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the TCEA Tots and Technology Conference in Galveston.  I attended a session at the conference over Seesaw.  It was a tool I had never heard of.  The presenter demonstrated ways in which she uses Seesaw in her Kindergarten classroom.  Her students create videos or images using a variety of apps, and the upload their assignments to their class on Seesaw.  Parents were also invited to view their student's work on Seesaw.  One example she showed us was an assignment where her students created videos explain long vowel sounds with words ending in e.  Another example was collages students had created using collage makers apps related to the vocabulary word, entomology, the study of insects.  Seesaw uses QR codes to join classes and share and view information, which makes it especially easy for young learners.  When looking up information about Seesaw, I didn't see anything that called it a CMS, but it's similarity to Edmodo makes me believe that it is one too.  From experimenting with both Edmodo and Seesaw, I believe that Seesaw would be more beneficial for young learners than Edmodo.

Both systems I explored this week clearly have great affordances towards education.  I plan to learn more ways in which I can implement these tools in the future to benefit both teachers and students.