Design Experiment 2: Edmodo
This week's Design Experiment is about furthering our knowledge of Course Management Systems. I'll be answering several important questions, such as: What are they? What purpose do they serve? How do students and teachers connect with one another? and What are some interesting features/comparisons of the different models out there?
I will start by explaining what a CMS, or Course Management System is. Sometimes referred to as a Learning Management System, a CMS is a software application that enables students to log in and participate in classes or courses online, essentially giving them the ability to interact with other students and the instructor as they would in a physical environment. With most CMS's, the student can learn the modules, participate in class discussions, view lectures, turn in assignments, take exams, and a variety of other class activities. In the many classes that I have taken online, I have experienced 3 or 4 different Course Management Systems. However, before I make a note of those, let's take a tour of one that was entirely new to me, called Edmodo.
Edmodo is a free website that allows a teacher to create and maintain their own class/course, and invite students to join up online. Even though the teacher account you create is free, it still boasts quite a bit of functionality that you would expect to see in many of the "higher-end" CMS portals that colleges and universities use. You can create separate groups (especially to sort them into classes), you can connect with other communities, create quizzes and send them out, send out notes & reminders, polls, and also send out videos of lectures, or just items and tidbits of knowledge to help the students learn.
I created my own Edmodo, even though I had no students to send it out to, so I could get a feel for how the site worked. I was able to complete my profile, add a library book (thanks Google!), create a quiz, and send out reminders and poll questions. (Link to my account here.)
It was very easy to set up all of these things, but I delved even deeper, because I wanted to see the how and the why that Edmodo would be useful to students. One of the most obvious affordances of CMS apps is allowing students to participate in collaborative learning. Just as in a traditional classroom, online learning allows students to cooperate in many different ways. For instance, they can explore a particular topic, exchanging ideas periodically, or even merge together different entries from each student to submit a group project. Another approach that online learning propels is that of inquiry-based learning. This was mentioned in our ETEC 591 class, actually, that...online, students are probably more susceptible to go out and find those answers for themselves. They have the means to do so, obviously, so why not take the leap? However, rather than being student-driven, the teacher may actually facilitate it in a more "teacher-guided" fashion. That's what is great about online learning - it really is flexible to pick and choose.
Another example of using what Edmodo has to offer might be a photography teacher who wants to teach a section on lighting of the photography subject. The teacher could send out a PowerPoint of the chapter on Monday, and have the students read over it, asking questions or doing further research until Wednesday, at which the teacher sends out an assignment they will need to turn in by the following Sunday. The students would then take their photos, and submit them through Edmodo, and the teacher might even decide to showcase them for the rest of the class, either as a poll, or simply to give the students opportunity to see one another's work. This might be a great example of student-led constructivism in an online environment (Simonson, et.al., p. 131).
Two of the recent Course Management Systems that I have participated in have been Blackboard and Canvas. Did they have any more features or functionality than Edmodo? Not particularly. Almost all of the same features were available. However, being high-end models that schools typically purchase for large volumes of students, they do have video conferencing, so that students can listen, view, and participate in lectures "real time". (Even with that function, I believe Blackboard and Canvas have to use a third-party company to accomplish it). So, Edmodo, in my opinion, would be a great place to start for a beginning teacher, because it has a really low-set learning curve, and it still maintains almost all features of other high-priced Web 2.0 Course Management Systems.
A great scenario for using Edmodo might be for teachers in school systems that have smaller budgets, and are unable to spend the large amounts of money it might take to get a CMS up and running. It might also be beneficial for teachers who have a small amount of pupils, such as someone running a tutoring business. Overall, I could highly recommend Edmodo to teachers, whether tech-savvy, or not, because it is entirely uncomplicated.
Cooperative and Collaborative Learning. (n.d.). WNET Education: Concept to Classroom. Retrieved June 17th, 2017, from: http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/coopcollab/
Course Management Systems. (n.d.). Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved June 17th, 2017, from: https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/course-management-systems/
Inquiry-Based Learning. (December 15, 2015). Edutopia. Retrieved June 17th, 2017, from: https://www.edutopia.org/practice/inquiry-based-learning-teacher-guided-student-driven
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., Zvacek, S. (2008). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education, 4th ed. Columbus, Ohio: Pearson.
I will start by explaining what a CMS, or Course Management System is. Sometimes referred to as a Learning Management System, a CMS is a software application that enables students to log in and participate in classes or courses online, essentially giving them the ability to interact with other students and the instructor as they would in a physical environment. With most CMS's, the student can learn the modules, participate in class discussions, view lectures, turn in assignments, take exams, and a variety of other class activities. In the many classes that I have taken online, I have experienced 3 or 4 different Course Management Systems. However, before I make a note of those, let's take a tour of one that was entirely new to me, called Edmodo.
Edmodo is a free website that allows a teacher to create and maintain their own class/course, and invite students to join up online. Even though the teacher account you create is free, it still boasts quite a bit of functionality that you would expect to see in many of the "higher-end" CMS portals that colleges and universities use. You can create separate groups (especially to sort them into classes), you can connect with other communities, create quizzes and send them out, send out notes & reminders, polls, and also send out videos of lectures, or just items and tidbits of knowledge to help the students learn.
I created my own Edmodo, even though I had no students to send it out to, so I could get a feel for how the site worked. I was able to complete my profile, add a library book (thanks Google!), create a quiz, and send out reminders and poll questions. (Link to my account here.)
It was very easy to set up all of these things, but I delved even deeper, because I wanted to see the how and the why that Edmodo would be useful to students. One of the most obvious affordances of CMS apps is allowing students to participate in collaborative learning. Just as in a traditional classroom, online learning allows students to cooperate in many different ways. For instance, they can explore a particular topic, exchanging ideas periodically, or even merge together different entries from each student to submit a group project. Another approach that online learning propels is that of inquiry-based learning. This was mentioned in our ETEC 591 class, actually, that...online, students are probably more susceptible to go out and find those answers for themselves. They have the means to do so, obviously, so why not take the leap? However, rather than being student-driven, the teacher may actually facilitate it in a more "teacher-guided" fashion. That's what is great about online learning - it really is flexible to pick and choose.
Another example of using what Edmodo has to offer might be a photography teacher who wants to teach a section on lighting of the photography subject. The teacher could send out a PowerPoint of the chapter on Monday, and have the students read over it, asking questions or doing further research until Wednesday, at which the teacher sends out an assignment they will need to turn in by the following Sunday. The students would then take their photos, and submit them through Edmodo, and the teacher might even decide to showcase them for the rest of the class, either as a poll, or simply to give the students opportunity to see one another's work. This might be a great example of student-led constructivism in an online environment (Simonson, et.al., p. 131).
Two of the recent Course Management Systems that I have participated in have been Blackboard and Canvas. Did they have any more features or functionality than Edmodo? Not particularly. Almost all of the same features were available. However, being high-end models that schools typically purchase for large volumes of students, they do have video conferencing, so that students can listen, view, and participate in lectures "real time". (Even with that function, I believe Blackboard and Canvas have to use a third-party company to accomplish it). So, Edmodo, in my opinion, would be a great place to start for a beginning teacher, because it has a really low-set learning curve, and it still maintains almost all features of other high-priced Web 2.0 Course Management Systems.
A great scenario for using Edmodo might be for teachers in school systems that have smaller budgets, and are unable to spend the large amounts of money it might take to get a CMS up and running. It might also be beneficial for teachers who have a small amount of pupils, such as someone running a tutoring business. Overall, I could highly recommend Edmodo to teachers, whether tech-savvy, or not, because it is entirely uncomplicated.
REFERENCES
Cooperative and Collaborative Learning. (n.d.). WNET Education: Concept to Classroom. Retrieved June 17th, 2017, from: http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/coopcollab/
Course Management Systems. (n.d.). Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved June 17th, 2017, from: https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/course-management-systems/
Inquiry-Based Learning. (December 15, 2015). Edutopia. Retrieved June 17th, 2017, from: https://www.edutopia.org/practice/inquiry-based-learning-teacher-guided-student-driven
Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., Zvacek, S. (2008). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education, 4th ed. Columbus, Ohio: Pearson.
Comments
Post a Comment