Edmodo: What Students Think from Technology and Education Box of Tricks

http://www.boxoftricks.net/?p=432
A high school foreign language teacher named Jose Picardo

I asked my students to compare Edmodo to our AsiSeHace Ning social network which we would otherwise use for the purpose of communication. For the students I interviewed, these are Edmodo’s main benefits:

• Edmodo’s simplicity in terms of interface is what makes it so effective
• The ability to send homework to the teacher as soon as it’s done and then forget about it
• Being able to communicate with the teacher if a student is struggling with work or requires further guidance

When asked what features they would like to see in Edmodo, they highlighted the following:

• Useful links to external resources get lost in the timeline, therefore they suggested the possibility to have a permanent links section for each group on the sidebar
• Some students expressed an interest in being able to communicate with each other synchronously when they are both on line – instant messaging
• Other students would like to have the ability to customise their profile or group pages to a greater degree

It is only rarely that my students seem so enthused about a new tool. They have genuinely found Edmodo useful and I look forward to rolling it out to other, younger year groups.