Title: Edmodo - tasks and activities
Course: AMORES initial learning materials for teachers on interactive ICT tools in teaching national and European literature > Section: Week 4: Edmodo

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About Edmodo

This week we will be having a look at Edmodo which is a secure social medium particularly useful for using in school, i.e., education.

We would like to begin some discussions with you on how you might use this social medium to create a virtual ‘classroom’ and enable your pupils/students to use online collaboration to engage with their chosen text(s).

Those of you who have not used Edmodo before please have a look at this brief introductory video.

Create an account

Throughout this week we will mostly be working in Edmodo, so please create your account here.

Once you've created an account, click here (AMORES online workshop) and here (AMORES pilot implementation) to join the two groups that have been created for you. One group is for the online course and the other one for when we start with project implementation.

You will also need to verify your account to help keep students protected on Edmodo. You can find out how to do so here.

You will be taking part in some discussions in Edmodo, but please go through the rest of this book to find links to videos and other useful materials that will provide you with ideas for contributing to the discussions.

Create your group

In this video, you will find step-by-step instructions on how to create your own groups, and how you can invite students to join.

At some point you are going to be taking part in a discussion about safety/security online, especially with regard to social media, so please read the Edmodo Parent Permission Form example. This will be particularly relevant when working with younger learners.

You might also want to take a look at a sample Code of Conduct for use with pupils of any age.

We also recommend you have a browse through the interactive Quick Guides to Edmodo, adapted for each group of users (young learners, slightly older ones, secondary school, etc.).

Upload files

Considering your students will be using Edmodo to share e-artefacts, the following videos might be useful as they show you how students add files to their backpack

and how teachers add files to their library.

Maybe you'll want to create separate folders for individual literary works, or tools used to create e-artefacts. We think this could be very useful when you'll be making the final selection of artefacts to be shared in the public gallery.

Start discussions

Once the e-artefacts have been uploaded you will want students to comment on them and interact. You can do this by starting a discussion and this tutorial shows you how to do that. Discussions can be started immediately or scheduled to start at a time that you find convenient.

In addition to responding to the opening comment, students and teachers can react to a post, thus providing immediate feedback (somewhat like "liking" on Facebook).

Planner

Before you start uploading e-artefacts, you'll probably want to set a due date for submissions. Or you might want your students to know when the next videoconferencing event is coming up. You can schedule tasks and events in the Edmodo Planner. This video walks you through how to use it.