ETEC 533- Group Project: The Edmodo Tutorial
For our final group project in this course, we were able to self-select our topic again and essentially make our own groups based on common areas of interest. As soon as I saw that Edmodo was one of the suggested online tools in the list provided, I quickly signed up for this topic, as Edmodo plays a big role in my current professional growth goals. I assumed that my classmates who signed up for this particular tutorial project would be individuals who were familiar with Edmodo as well and were looking to share their knowledge with others. As it turned out, I was the only person in my group of four who was actively using Edmodo. Initially this concerned me, but as we dove into the planning and division of tasks, I realized that all of my group members were motivated and keen to learn more about what Edmodo has to offer educators. As a fairly new user of this tool myself, there was a great deal that I did not know (and still do not know) about this online resource and I benefited a great deal from this project.
There was also tremendous value in the process that we went through to create the final version of the tutorial. We started with a basic proposal of our intended goals for our project. We completed a rationale and overview and we also outlined the basic shape that our actual tutorial website would take. Once our actual website began to take shape, we posted a link to the project on Blackboard and began to receive feedback from our peers. We received formal feedback from five different people (four classmates, plus the instructor). We were able to use that feedback to improve upon the ‘draft’ version of our website. The feedback that we received about our Edmodo tutorial was incredibly valuable. As we each received our feedback from the various consultants, we then shared the comments in a Google doc. We collaboratively worked through the feedback and made note of the common trends in the constructive criticism. Overall, our consultants were impressed with our site, however there were a number of areas that most definitely required some fine tuning. We then revised and reworked the site to get our tutorial in peak form before submitting our final version to be evaluated. I was astounded by the significant changes that we made to the website based on the feedback that we had received. The value of such a process was so apparent in the positive changes that we were able to make to our website based on the experiences and opinions that real users of our site shared with us. What a great way to give students even more opportunity to learn from their initial weaknesses and strengthen their learning with the support of their classmates.
I am including this project as an artifact of my learning for a number of reasons. Edmodo has become a very important learning tool for me and I see huge potential in it for educators at all levels. I wanted to be sure to include this tutorial here, so that it can be shared with a broader audience. This is an example of a piece of technology that has truly transformed my practice and has allowed me to meet or work toward meeting many of my professional goals. Although none of my colleagues have seen this e-portfolio at this time, I shared the Edmodo tutorial website with my fellow teachers at a staff meeting shortly after its completion. In addition to that, some of my colleagues have in turn shared the tutorial with other educators who have expressed an interest in Edmodo, so in a way, my goal has already been met. I have even received emails from staff in the district who have heard about the tutorial site and my use of the program and wished to inquire further. This resource has already been shared and re-shared by numerous people. I have also shared this website with my own students and their parents as well, because of the major role that Edmodo plays in our learning. This particular artifact clearly illustrates the far reaching impact of both learning management systems like Edmodo, as well as the user generated resources that accompany them.
Below I have included a copy of our initial project proposal, as well as a link to view our tutorial. I have included my own personal testimonial about using Edmodo in the classroom, which can also be found under the 'Why Edmodo?' tab on our tutorial site.
There was also tremendous value in the process that we went through to create the final version of the tutorial. We started with a basic proposal of our intended goals for our project. We completed a rationale and overview and we also outlined the basic shape that our actual tutorial website would take. Once our actual website began to take shape, we posted a link to the project on Blackboard and began to receive feedback from our peers. We received formal feedback from five different people (four classmates, plus the instructor). We were able to use that feedback to improve upon the ‘draft’ version of our website. The feedback that we received about our Edmodo tutorial was incredibly valuable. As we each received our feedback from the various consultants, we then shared the comments in a Google doc. We collaboratively worked through the feedback and made note of the common trends in the constructive criticism. Overall, our consultants were impressed with our site, however there were a number of areas that most definitely required some fine tuning. We then revised and reworked the site to get our tutorial in peak form before submitting our final version to be evaluated. I was astounded by the significant changes that we made to the website based on the feedback that we had received. The value of such a process was so apparent in the positive changes that we were able to make to our website based on the experiences and opinions that real users of our site shared with us. What a great way to give students even more opportunity to learn from their initial weaknesses and strengthen their learning with the support of their classmates.
I am including this project as an artifact of my learning for a number of reasons. Edmodo has become a very important learning tool for me and I see huge potential in it for educators at all levels. I wanted to be sure to include this tutorial here, so that it can be shared with a broader audience. This is an example of a piece of technology that has truly transformed my practice and has allowed me to meet or work toward meeting many of my professional goals. Although none of my colleagues have seen this e-portfolio at this time, I shared the Edmodo tutorial website with my fellow teachers at a staff meeting shortly after its completion. In addition to that, some of my colleagues have in turn shared the tutorial with other educators who have expressed an interest in Edmodo, so in a way, my goal has already been met. I have even received emails from staff in the district who have heard about the tutorial site and my use of the program and wished to inquire further. This resource has already been shared and re-shared by numerous people. I have also shared this website with my own students and their parents as well, because of the major role that Edmodo plays in our learning. This particular artifact clearly illustrates the far reaching impact of both learning management systems like Edmodo, as well as the user generated resources that accompany them.
Below I have included a copy of our initial project proposal, as well as a link to view our tutorial. I have included my own personal testimonial about using Edmodo in the classroom, which can also be found under the 'Why Edmodo?' tab on our tutorial site.
edmodo_tutorial_proposal.pdf | |
File Size: | 229 kb |
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Click here to visit our tutorial website.