Edmodo and Voicethread

Monday was spent in a workshop explaining the amazing and unparalleled uses of Edmodo and Voicethread in the classroom and learning community. Since we are switching to Common Core Standards this year, we are having to readdress not only how we teach but who we work with when we teach. Edmodo is essentially a social networking site for educators. I'm not sure why it took so long for it to reach us, but hopefully it's been around for a few years. Currently it has approximately 8 million users world wide, which is quite nice when you consider that part of your job as a teacher is to check off that globalization box on your evaluation. The layout is simple, and similar to other networking sites, you can post on your wall, on others walls, and join groups and communities. To be a part of a group or a community you have to have a code from the group starter, and this is the only drawback I found. One of the teachers who was in my workshop knew there was someone who has an awesome iPad community, but couldn't join it because she didn't know the founders name, and did not have the group number. And, you can't look up the group without that information. Maybe something for them to work on. When you start a group, you can invite your students to join in. Students are given a special code, you can put them in manually or upload them via a CSV file, and even parents can be given access (making them feel much better about social networking for their kids). Once they are a part of your group, you are the moderator, thus able to protect them from what they might say to each other. Since I'm in an elementary school, I worry a little less about this, but I think its' definitely useful for secondary education. I started a small group and added a fake student to play around with Edmodo. What I found that I liked was that you can add lots of polls and quizzes to force your students to be engaged with the group. Because everyone has an individual account, it's easy to follow what they are posting (or not posting!) on the site, and there is even a gradebook feature that allows you to grade your students online. Voicethread is a site that seems to me almost like a virtual Powerpoint with comments. Because you can record yourself (both voice and movements) on the site, you can communicate with your students online. Great for students who might have missed a presentation and are at home. Also a great way to let them literally hear what their classmates have to say. For students who are shy and have a hard time speaking out in class, this is a great way for them to share what they are learning without having to do it in front of their classmates. Voicethread offers you the option, once you have your lesson complete, of sharing that lesson with a broader community. You can search and find lessons from all over the world with comments from every corner, or you can completely restrict your comments to only those within the account. What can this do for our kids? It can make them excited about learning things they may not have been excited about before: i.e. War of 1812? Bo-ring! War of 1812 Voicethread with school from England? Yay! It can give those kids who have a hard time finding their voice in the classroom a more private (even though it's really more public, right?) way to voice their opinions and show us what they are picking up on, and what kid in today's world doesn't want to play around on a site in which they can record themselves, or a social networking site- at school! How taboo! What makes this different than other, similar technologies? They are so ridiculously easy to use, and your school district can sign up for one account- which means the money isn't coming out of your pocket. Check on it before you pay for an account.