Technology Reflection : Ipads

Technology Reflection : Instructional Use of Edmodo

Technology Reflection Assignment

Description/Experience

Last seminar the Edmodo program was presented to my class. The demonstration showed me a number of valuable resources it has to offer. The first aspect I noticed was the familiar interface; it looks very similar to facebook. This familiarity is beneficial not only for students who have experience with facebook, but also for myself as an educator. The class also discussed the homework help benefits for students that Edmodo allows. Another thing I found important was the control the teacher has over the groups, specifically the ability to view all posts and option to reset passwords.

Application

An interesting activity that would be relevant to their curriculum is a “Guess Who” game on Edmodo. Students read short biographies that the teacher has posted and are told to guess who the biography is about with the use of several documents uploaded to the Edmodo library. Afterwards they are assigned to write their own anonymous biographies and post them for the rest of the class to read and guess.

• Learners: 8^th graders in a West Virginia Studies class
• Learning outcomes: The purpose of this activity is to review some of the famous people they have already learned about and to familiarize the students with famous West Virginians that have not yet been introduced.
• Assessment: Students are assessed on how many of the 5 initial biographies they can correctly identify. The second half of the assessment is upon completion of their biography writing assignments. Bonus points or reinforcement may be given to students who can be the first to correctly identify the biographies written by their peers.

-In order to make sure all students can participate, this activity will take place in the computer lab.

-Initially seven documents are posted to the library. Although they should not be biographies they should have vast biographical information about the important West Virginians I want to highlight with the anonymous biographies. Along with the seven documents, five biographies are posted, but the names of each person are kept a secret.

-Students are given up to ten minutes to read through the documents and use the new found information to determine the identities of each anonymous biography.

-After they have submitted their answers they are instructed to write a biography in the same style as the ones they just read and post it for the class. They must send the identities to me, but their peers will not see this.

-If time allows students may read through each other’s posts and make educated guesses, but most likely this will be an optional activity for them to do at home.

Reflection

The use of Edmodo will support my teaching strategies because it enables me to guide the students without directly instructing them the entire time. This will allow me to devote time to struggling students who need more attention as well as keep the high achieving students engaged. This constructivist style of teaching will help build my students’ critical thinking skills.

The effective use of Edmodo will enhance the students comprehension because it will keep them engaged. Adding the element of a social-network, especially one so similar to facebook, will encourage the students to participate in what is actually no more than a reading and writing exercise. In addition, it has been shown that comprehension is improved when the student takes on the role of teaching the content which is evident in the second half of the assignment in which students must post a biography they write in class.

--Pedagogy-Content:

The content is found within the anonymous biographies and articles posted to the library. For example if one of the mystery persons was Anna Jarvis an article about the Mother’s Day Shrine in Taylor county may be posted.

The students may assume that the biographies and articles will not be interesting or fun to read because they have historical value; however I believe mixing in a more modern representative of West Virginia, such as Landau Murphy, winner of America’s Got Talent, may draw in their attention. I would take students to the computer lab for this activity so access would not be a concern, but I would be worried that students might be distracted by the opportunity to use other sites while they should be on Edmodo, or to use search engines to find the biography identities rather than reading the articles provided.

--Technology-Pedagogy:

The students all use Edmodo to read and post for the element of technology. The instructional purpose for Edmodo in this activity is to ease the process of sharing their biographies.

Using technology would support the way I teach this activity by graphically organizing all the material (the articles, initial biographies and student-written biographies) to be read. It will be easier to manage as computer documents and will generate less paper waste in the classroom.

Good time management will be important because the students make want to take much longer than they need to write their biographies. I also would want to make myself present to the class, most likely by roaming between rows, to ensure they stay on task even when I’m not directly instructing.

--Technology-Content:

Using Edmodo with enhance the representation of  content by making it more interactive, and therefore engaging for students. Without this technology the content may seem less interesting.

Students will understand the content in this activity better through Edmodo because it puts a familiar interface to the new information they are receiving. Without this technology the content may seem somewhat more confusing because Edmodo helps to aesthetically organize it.

--Technology-Pedagogy-Content:

Reading about important West Virginias will prepare the students for in class assessments and the Golden Horseshoe exam. Reading about them on Edmodo and providing an opportunity for the students to write a biography as well will get them more engaged.

The technology will enhance the content by providing the new information in an organized fashion and it will enhance the pedagogy by enabling the students to discover new information on their own while I can be available to provide extra help.

Choosing a constructivist teaching strategy for this combination of content and technology was an obvious decision to make because Edmodo is a great way for students to discover information on their own as well as with their peers, and learning about famous people from West Virginia is not the type of complicated concept that requires me to provide immense direct instruction.