Learning with Technology EDUC5101G Instructor: Roland van Oostveen Final Paper

Andrew Cohen March 2012

Edmodo: a collaborative web 2.0 learning tool

Edmodo
Edmodo (www.edmodo.com) is a free social networking site designed for education. It allows teachers to set up secure communities (usually classes) of students. Teachers can upload files and links. They can post assignments, and create and post quizzes and polls, which students complete on the site. Teachers can grade quizzes, add comments, record grades, and display grades and comments to each student all within the site. Students interact with each other and the teacher by posting messages, which can form threaded discussions. Students can also work collaboratively in small groups within a class by posting messages and by working in Google docs, which is integrated with Edmodo. There are many effective ways this site could be used in the classroom. Here are several ideas: Students read an uploaded document, then complete a multiple-choice quiz testing and solidifying comprehension or skills taught in class (e.g., inferencing, detecting bias). This could be used to introduce a topic, as a mid-point review, or as the final assessment in a unit. Students complete an assignment based on a class text or a file uploaded to Edmodo; all student work, submission and grading (including recording grades) could take place within the site. Students work in small groups, posting discussion about a common text to answer guiding questions. Students collaborate through posting messages to collectively develop an answer to an open-ended question. Students collaborate to organize and present their findings for a research project.
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Classes use Edmodo as a discussion forum and research home base for Project-Based Learning tasks (Laur, 2011).

Teachers use the discussion functions to actively develop cooperation, teamwork and collaborative skills within a class.

Teachers use the site as a learning management system with multiple functions, including assigning and collecting work; tracking grades; and informing students and parents of homework, due dates and reminders of special events.

There are clearly many more potential applications of this site. Good teaching involves considering how the features of a particular technological resource, the subject content and pedagogy interrelate (Mishra, 2006); as individual teachers consider their subject content, and apply pedagogical theories to their context, they will develop unique uses of Edmodo.

Competencies
Students using Edmodo exercise the technical, informational and social competencies in Desjardin, Lacasse and Blairs framework (2001). Students need to master the technical aspects of using the site, including creating an account, posting comments, viewing files, and so on. The learning curve for most current students will likely be smooth and brief: typical of Web 2.0 sites (Duffy, 2008), Edmodo is designed to be user-friendly and intuitive, and many of the technical skills involved in using the site will be familiar to Net Gen students, especially posting messages, which is similar to tweeting or to posting messages on a Facebook page.

Students use Edmodo to access information, both within the site (in uploaded files), and through links posted on the site. Depending on the learning approach and the degree of scaffolding and student autonomy, they may be directed to specific sources, or be expected to use appropriate digital literacy skills to locate relevant information on their own. Students connect and interact socially with other students through posting messages and through collaborative activities. Within the informational and social orders, students can also develop digital literacy through the use of Edmodo.

Web 2.0
Web 2.0 is typified by users working with applications through an internet browser; users participating in and contributing to sites; social networking; and a user-friendly interface (Duffy, 2008). Edmodo can be considered a Web 2.0 tool, as it facilitates social networking and participation, and is easy to learn and use.

Learning Theory
Social Constructivism In that it supports learning through collaboration with others, Edmodo can be seen as a SocialConstructivist tool. Lev Vygotsky (1978) saw that learning, especially in children, happens through interaction with others. As students interact and collaborate in Edmodo, engaging in activities which promote analysis, discussion and debate, they construct knowledge (Brown, 2004). Engagement Theory

Engagement theory can be summarized as Relate, Create, Donate: meaningful learning occurs as students work together to complete a project connected to real-life problems or contexts (Kearsley, 1998). Students can use Edmodo to collaborate in this kind of learning, although teachers will need to provide connections to real-life contexts that may be beyond the scope of Edmodo. One example of this kind of learning is provided by Dayna Laur (2011), who used Edmodo for a project in which her senior law class collaboratively explored ways to lower the crime rate in America, and then presented their findings in person to local law enforcement officials.

How Edmodo supports learning.

Promotes and Facilitates Collaboration Students collaborate and interact as they work on collaborative projects as a class or in small groups within the class, and through posting messages. Social constructivism and engagement theory highlight the central role and value of collaboration in learning. By interacting and collaborating with others, students construct and refine their own knowledge, and find learning meaningful and engaging (Vygotsky, 1978; Kearsley, 1998). In Edmodo, students can work together on a range of collaborative activities, such as planning and carrying out group tasks; brainstorming; discussing and debating; and editing files (through the integrated use of Google docs). The capacity to interact through posting (writing messages which appear on others pages) within Edmodo further enhances the collaborative nature of the site. Interactions can be between students; individual students and the teacher; and groups of students (including the whole class) and the teacher (Jung et al, 2002). Interactions can be classified as academic (content focussed,
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including interacting with content, and interacting with the teacher about the content); collaborative (when students work together on a task); or social (including encouragement and motivational feedback from the teacher or other students). All three kinds of interactions, but especially collaboration and social interaction, supported academic achievement and students satisfaction about their learning progress within an online learning environment (Jung et al, 2002). These kinds of interaction are all facilitated within Edmodo. Posting within Edmodo serves a range of functions which support learning. Posting can be equated with microblogging (tweeting): messages are usually brief, and can be seen and responded to by all members of the group who receive the initial post. Microblogging has been shown to facilitate organization of ideas and metacognition (Holotescu & Grosseck, 2010). It can be used to share information and resources; ask questions and seek information; and give opinions. It allows open and transparent communication between teachers and students. It facilitates immediate feedback. Finally, students can use microblogging to continue conversations and learning outside the classroom (Ebner et al, 2010). This is true of Edmodo; students can access the site from any computer, or via the Edmodo app on mobile devices. Posted messages may constitute a learning activity, such as a threaded discussion on a given topic; be supportive of a learning activity, including sharing links to relevant sources of information, or helping each other understand details of an assignment; or be apparently superfluous to learning the wassup? kind of posting. This small talk may still have a positive effect on learning, as it can help students enjoy the class; Ebner (2010) also points out that valuable informal learning learning that is student-driven, occurring without direct input from the teacher can only occur if students feel free to communicate with other students without constraints.
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Matches Students Learning Characteristics Generational theory suggests that generations of learners share similar characteristics which impact their learning (Wilson & Gerber, 2008). While this theory has its dissenters (Wikipedia: Strauss-Howe generational theory), there is general agreement on several common and pertinent learning characteristics of current students, the Net Generation (Net Geners). Net Geners have grown up in a connected world. They have not known a time when the internet did not exist. Through the rise of mobile internet-connected devices (iPhones, etc.), they are more connected than previous generations; they expect up-to-date information, whenever and wherever they want it. They are tech-savvy, and are quick uptakers of new, cutting-edge technology (Halle & Mallinson, 2009). Net Geners learning characteristics reflect the rise of social constructivism in education. They learn best when they are actively involved in the learning process: they do not learn as mere recipients of information, but prefer interactive, student-centred learning. They learn by collaborating and making connections with others (Halle & Mallinson, 2009; Siemens, 2004, 2006; McNeely, 2004). Roberts (2004) found that Net Gen students want their teachers to use technology to support teaching and learning, and to be competent in their use of technology. Edmodo matches this generations learning characteristics. Its user interface is easy to learn and use; many of the functions provided by Edmodo will be familiar to this generation of connected students. It supports collaboration for a generation for whom group work is the norm (McNeely, 2004: 4.4). Teachers can easily use Edmodo to provide a student-centred, interactive learning environment. It is also at-hand: Edmodo is available as an app for android and iPhone

devices, and the Edmodo user guide promotes it as a tool for student access to learning outside the classroom, via mobile devices or computers. Helps Develop Digital Literacy Digital literacy refers to the ability to locate, evaluate, synthesize, process, create, use and share information online (Hobbs, 2010; Lankshear and Knobel, 2008). Implicit in any consideration of digital literacy is the added issue of online security, especially for younger students. Edmodo can be a vehicle for teaching digital literacy in context. Activities such as navigating within Edmodo, evaluating each others point of view, and using information to contribute wisely to threaded discussions all use and develop cognitive skills Eshet-Alkalai terms digital literacies (2004), specifically branching literacy (navigating information that is not presented in a linear fashion); socio-emotional literacy (evaluating others intentions, and sharing and collaborating); and informational literacy (judging the reliability of information, and using information wisely) (Eshet-Alkalai, 2004). As an online tool, Edmodo can also serve as a doorway to the wider internet. Teachers can direct students to relevant (and appropriate) sites; students can conduct explorations of available information through the lenses (including precise terminology) of guiding questions or tasks. They can return for redirection or clarification, consulting not just with the teacher, but with their peers. This supported navigation of digital space can help learners develop digital literacy skills safely. Younger students have not yet developed the ability to discern others intentions or evaluate the trustworthiness of online information; these skills will develop with scaffolded instruction, beginning with teacher modelling, then monitored activities, followed by activities with
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progressively less supervision and guidance. The security devices which protect students in Edmodo Dayna Laur (2011) rates Edmodos security as superior to any other web 2.0 tools I have found make it a safe digital place in which students can develop critical literacy skills.

Pedagogical limitations of Edmodo

Overdependence on written communication Communication within the site is primarily written, in an age when much information is visual; as with every age, some learners struggle with writing and reading. However, the writing style is accessible short, and tech-based and in a familiar format (posting messages). Furthermore, other types of communication (e.g., audio, video, images) can be uploaded and viewed asynchronously. There is no synchronous audio or video component as is found in learning environments such as WebCT; in my experience of online learning, these greatly enhance the social aspect of learning. However, in a traditional school setting, if a school teacher is using Edmodo as one part of a classs learning experience, students will have extensive face-to-face interaction anyway even, if they are in a computer lab setting, while using Edmodo. Limited use in some subject areas and contexts Edmodo readily lends itself to extensive, varied and ongoing use in language-based subjects such as Language Arts or History. Developing meaningful lessons in other subjects, however, may be more difficult, increasing teachers resistance to using the site. Edmodo may be more appealing to elementary homeroom teachers than subject-specific teachers of subjects such as Math; with large blocks of time with the one class, covering multiple subjects, homeroom teachers will be

more easily able to access the technology, and integrate use of Edmodo into a range of subject areas. Teacher-Created Teacher-created social network sites may not appeal to students. Selwyn (2008) suggests that social networking sites are more effective in education when they are created and run by the students. However, I suggest that the appeal of using a social networking site in class will outweigh possible student concerns about who has set up and who runs the site.

Conclusion
Edmodo is an easy-to-use, flexible learning tool which promotes collaborative learning. Combined with creative teaching and a willingness to explore new modes of interaction, Edmodo can make a significant contribution to student engagement and learning.

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Sources
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