Collaborative Learning Environment: Edmodo

A collaborative online learning environment (CLE) can be a wonderful place for students, teachers, and families to create and share work.  I have experience with some collaborative learning environments, which include Google sites, docs, forms, and presentation as well as VT’s Young Writer’s Project.  I would like to further develop my experience with collaborative learning environments and have decided to try using the learning management system (lms), Edmodo this fall.  

Here are some strengths of Edmodo:

• Easy to facilitate class discussions 
• Allows for communication with families
• Students can collaborate with each other
• Teachers can collaborate with each other
• Easy to post assignments for students
• Students do not need an email address to access Edmodo
• Teachers can create polls & quizzes
• Easy to provide grades & feedback on assignments
• You can embed videos on the wall for class tutorials or discussions
• Teachers can keep a calendar for students to check due dates
• You can connect your Google Drive account to Edmodo

Check out these resources collected on Diigo to help make Edmodo easier to use:

Edmodo Resources

One downfall of using Edmodo is that students have one more place to log into instead of staying in their Google Account.  I would prefer if students could complete their work in the same account we are using as an LMS.  This will have to wait until Google Classroom is available to use as an LMS!

All in all, Edmodo is an effective, easy to use LMS.  I’m looking forward to more online collaboration this coming school year.  I am excited that my class will have a place to view, discuss, and collect assignments online.