HOW TO USE EDMODO
Edmodo is an academic social group website, similar in layout to Facebook in many
ways, but without the more social aspects!
It can serve as an online VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) or effectively a
department website, and has many advantages though obviously has limitations
compared to full VLE software such as Firefly and Contribute:
-
Create groups for different classes
Create multiple choice, short answer, true or false or fill in the blank quizzes
Create assignments that can be ‘handed in’ online and corrected online.
Send messages and alerts to members of your groups
Monitor progress of pupils using a grade book
Create a poll for students to vote on
Create an online ‘library’ for different groups where you can save webpages,
documents of different types, images etc for pupils to download or go to.
- Award badges for success
- Communicate with other teachers
There are lots of other benefits too. And it is free!
1. Go to www.edmodo.com, and click the signup button. Fill out the information
as required. Remember to use something formal as your username, ie
mrwatson2012
2. Once you have registered and logged in successfully, your screen will be set
out something like this, though without the activity bits and groups. This is
how my screen currently looks!
A quick run down of what you have here:
Along the top menu bar, you have icons for ‘Home’, ‘Planner’ (a calendar tool for
when you set assignments etc), a ‘Grade book’ (this is where you can see how
your pupils are doing), a ‘Library’ (where you save your documents) and Apps.
Down the left hand side you have the groups that you have created, plus any
communities you have joined. This is where you create or join ‘Groups’, and this
will be the first thing you do.
In the middle you have your main ‘action areas’ where you can send notes, alerts
(max 140 characters, like Twitter), create assignments, create quizzes, or create
a poll.
On the right hand side you have your ‘newsfeed’. As you can see here, I have 4
new quizzes handed in, one new group member, and one direct message. I can
also see who has logged on recently.
The first thing you will do is create a group for one of your classes. On the left
hand side, click ‘Create Group’.
This is what will come up. Call the group something appropriate, such as ‘FY
French Set 2’, choose which grade it is for, Select a subject area (probably World
Languages), and then a subject (ie French). Then click create. A confirmation
message will come up with a group code. This is the code to send to your pupils
so that they can join this group. After clicking to the next screen, you will then be
taken to the ‘group page’ for this new group, from where you can send notes,
alerts, assign quizzes, assignments, polls, or see group members, create folders
with documents and manage the group generally.
How to create a quiz.
From this group page, click on Quiz in the middle of the screen. You will then get the
option to either Create a Quiz or Load a Previous Quiz. Click on Create Quiz.
From the above image hopefully you can see the key areas. You can set the title of
the quiz, set a time limit for them to take it in, choose the question type you want,
and then click Add First Question. You can do different question types within the
same quiz.
Hopefully the quiz making is quite self-explanatory. You input the answers in the
relevant boxes and then click ‘Set as Correct Answer’ to choose which the right
answer is, as the True and False and Multiple Choice questions will be automatically
corrected. To add another question, click the + icon on the left hand side. If you want
a different question type, click the ‘Multiple Choice’ button to change.
When you have completed the quiz, click ‘Assign Quiz’. You will then be taken back
to the group page to say when you want this quiz done by, who to send the quiz to,
and whether to add the scores for the quiz to your gradebook. It will look like this:
Click send when you have filled in the relevant details. An error message will come
up if you have missed anything. Add tags to help pupils find specific topics etc.
You will find out if a pupil has done a test as there will be notifications on the right
hand side of the page. You can see from this screen capture what notifications I had
today:
To correct tests, you click on the ‘Turned in’ button for the relevant quiz.
This will take you to a screen that will look a bit like this:
This shows who has done the test, the mark that they got, which questions they got
wrong etc. To click on each person to put feedback, or to correct Short Answer
quizzes, click on the person you want to correct, in this case Dörte.
In this way you can pinpoint what areas are causing problems for everyone, and
give direct feedback. The pupil will be able to read your comments. I often send an
alert or a note to a pupil to say I have put comments so they know to check.
You can check grades and results by going to the gradebook area of the homepage. It
will look like this:
Here you can see who is doing the extra work and how they are doing plus
percentages overall. You can click on each student for a breakdown of results. I do a
pupil of the month award based on who is working hardest!
Using the Library and Creating Folders
A good facet of Edmodo is the fact that you can create folders to store work, useful
links, worksheets and so on. To go the Library section, click on the books icon at the
top of your screen along the blue menu bar. You will then be taken to a page that
will be set up something like this (See below), again currently without all the
content in the middle.
The format should look fairly straightforward. Starting on the left you have the ‘Add
to Library button’. Clicking on this will open a mini window asking you to either
choose a file to upload, or find a web link. Follow the instructions to do either of
these and the file will appear in the middle of your screen.
Below this ‘Attached to Posts’ refers to websites or documents that you have
already previously attached to an assignment or quiz.
Google Docs is handy if you use this to share documents
Then you have the Folders section, where you can easily create a folder, and then
put documents into it. Click on the ‘+New’ icon to create a new folder. The following
window will pop up, giving you the option to name the new folder, and then share it
with any classes that you have created or groups that you have joined.
Simple check the boxes you want to share the folder with and click create. The new
folder will appear on the left hand side of your screen.
To add a file to a certain folder, click on the file you want to move (these will be in
the middle of the screen,), then it’s icon will pop up. Click on ‘folder’ and then select
the folder you want to put it in.
If you want to view a file, select it and then click on the ‘magnifying glass’ icon to go
to that page or to view the file.
To have a look at what you have stored within your folder, simply click on it and the
contents will come up. If you have shared these folders with a class, they will be able
to see these on their library page.
As for the ‘Shared Folders’ these will be folders shared by people you may have
linked with. I follow various Spanish teachers groups and hence have access to a lot
of shared resources.
Creating and Awarding Badges
If you want to reward pupils for hard work and scores in quizzes and so on, you can
award badges, both ones you have made yourself and ones that Edmodo already has
created.
To do this, there are various ways. Perhaps the easiest is from your home screen,
select a class, and then click ‘Members’. Find the pupils you wish to award a badge to
and then click ‘Award Badge’ at the bottom of the screen.
The easiest option is just to use an Edmodo create badge – if you want to create your
own, click on ‘New Badge’, having found a suitable picture that you can upload. Give
the Badge a title (eg the Seal of Approval’) and give a description (eg, a badge for 3
consecutive full marks in tests). Upload the picture and click ‘Create Badge’.
Pupils get a notification when they have been awarded a badge on the email they
have used to join the group.
Sending Notes and Alerts
Edmodo has an easy way of sending messages to pupils. If you want to remind either
a group or an individual about late hall, an assignment due, new additions to the
library folder etc, then you can do so easily.
Go to the Home Screen and click ‘Note’. Type in your message and notice that you
can attach files or links with your note, including videos or audio (of a restricted
size). In the Send to box either type in the name of a group or an individual and click
send. The pupil will then receive an email notification, plus a notification on the
right side of his or her home screen when they log in.
Alerts work the same way, but you only have 140 characters to write your note,
similar to Twitter.
Setting Assignments
You can also set longer class assigments for pupils to do. Again, the set up is simple.
From your home screen, click on ‘Assignment’ and then fill in the required
information in the boxes.
You will get an assignment when they have been handed in which you can then
correct online. I find this a little fiddly actually, so I don’t use this a great deal to be
honest, but it does work! Theoretically this is a good way of setting work for absent
pupils.
Joining other groups and making connections
Edmodo is a sharing environment with many other teachers from around the world
sharing ideas and discussing teaching. A good way of starting to find other teachers
is as follows:
On the left hand side of your home screen, there is a ‘Communities area’. If you click
Browse you can find subjects that you might be interested in following, such as
‘World languages’. See some of the communities below:
There are also a number of education-based companies that you can follow
which may be relevant. Simple click on the logo to visit their page and if you
think it is useful, click the green ‘Follow Community’ button, which will send you
updates whenever there is a new post in that page. You can meet other
professionals who contribute on these pages and follow them and create
connections.
And that’s about it! There are various other features, but you can explore most of
these yourselves. There are a number of links to online resources for getting
more out of Edmodo. The #mfltwitterati community of which I am a member on
Twitter (I’m @pedroelprofesor) are always good for advice.
Here are some useful links:
@edmodo – contact edmodo directly on Twitter.
http://blog.edmodo.com/2013/02/22/video-resources-to-help-you-introduceedmodo/
http://joedale.typepad.com/integrating_ict_into_the_/2009/08/edmodoreviewed.html (contains a lot of other links too)
http://www.boxoftricks.net/2008/09/edmodo-microblogging-for-theclassroom/