Edmodo?

So....Edmodo! What is it?

http://www.edmodo.com/home

It's a form of 'social networking' that has evolved for teachers. Let's face it, so many student's use facebook for social networking, and are really good at it! Students check their facebook once a day if not more...so why not create a social networking site with an education spin!!?

Edmodo is a great site for students to discuss and evaluate current topics they are learning in a subject. Students can submit work, receive marks and share resources.

Teachers must create a profile for their students, and place it on private settings so that no one can join but the students - protecting their privacy. This is very important as cyber bullying can occur on any social networking website. If signing up my class, I would suggest that students do not place their surname in. Even though a breach of privacy is low, it protects you and the students.

I think that parents can also access the edmodo website - observing only the posts made by their child. I am not 100% sure how this works however, but I am going to look into it.

One problem that can arise from using websites such as 'edmodo' is that it is out of the schools 'control'. If anything bad occurs on the website (ie. bullying), the teacher may get in trouble as it is not directly associated with the school. In order to set up an edmodo account for students, teachers should discuss the idea with the school and understand exactly how to place the site on private.

ABC.net and Spicy Nodes

Over this semester, I have been exposed to a vast number of ICT mediums that I never knew existed! For my Biology assignment 2, we had to design a series of lessons on fossils, evolution and divergent/convergent evolution using ICT. For my part of the assignment, I looked at the various ways we could use ICT when introducing the topic of fossils. When I began researching this area and the ways in which I could use ICT to teach it, I found two ‘games’ on www.abc.net.au! Both of these games are interactive activities that could be used as a class based or individual activity. The first of these games is a fun ‘predict, observe, explain’ (POE) activity, in which you drag the body of the horse to various locations in the picture and observe whether the environment is right for a fossil to form. I would get the students to try predicting what will happen and explaining why – this is a great way to begin class discussion and engage students with the content material.

http://www.abc.net.au/beasts/fossilfun/burial/default.htm

This second POE activity from the same website allows students to predict whether a fossil will be made under certain conditions.

http://www.abc.net.au/beasts/fossilfun/makingfossils/default.htm

I originally wanted to create a worksheet for students to complete – however this assignment was supposed to only use ICT so I had to look into computer based ways for students to record their findings. This is when I came across spicy nodes! http://www.spicynodes.org/ Spicy nodes are a fantastic way for students to make concept maps and create URL links so that you (as a teacher) can use them as a form of assessment. I had a play around with the program to see how it works and came up this this:

http://www.spicynodes.org/a/9992b8c1e9c789a6fcb9388c9c61de0f

Spicy nodes give students the ability to create concept maps that include youtube videos and photos. Students can change the colour of the text, change the font and edit the layout. It gives students the ability to visualise and construct their learning whilst remaining fun and interactive.