Micro-Blogs

[|Edmodo] ([|edmodo.com])

Edmodo is an asynchronous micro-blog. Micro-blogging is not familiar to everyone, but it essentially allows you to connect with your students outside of class. In appearance it is very similar to [|Facebook]. For this reason I think that students would be interested in it from the start. It is totally free which makes it very useful from a teacher standpoint. You can create a group for your students and students can join without providing an email. When you create a group you receive an access code. Anyone that you give the code to can join. Only members of the group have access to the material posted so it is a private site. It is super easy to join the group, you just go to the website www.edmodo.com, hit the sign-up link and enter the code.

This tool would be useful in many ways. For one you can post assignments for your students. It seems like every day in every class someone is absent. If students could go to their group and see what the assignments are, they would never have another excuse for handing in an assignment late. You can post links and attachments to any kind of media here. Students can submit their assignments electronically and the site also has a grading tool where you can post grades. There is a calendar tool where students can see everything that has been posted. Teachers can send messages to the groups or to individual students. The site stores teacher files. It is also useful when there is a substitute. I think this would be a great tool to hold students accountable for completing assignments on time. This would also be a great place to add links to external resources that the students can use for additional assistance in understanding a concept.