Edmodo... Collaboration in the 21st Century

Edmodo: a online collaboration to which allows students to engage with other students from different places.

For the past couple of weeks, my instructional technology class has had the privilege of engaging in the writing activity with a 5th grade class from a local middle school. The task was for the students to write a portion of a story, and then 3 or so people from my class would write the next part of the story. The student from  the middle school would choose the part they wished to add to their story. This continued for several more rounds of writing and choosing. At the end of last week, the students then wrote their final drafts with the portions they had chosen. 

We also designed a magazine cover of what a education magazine would look like if we were to win teacher of the month. We uploaded the covers, and the students voted on which one they liked best. 

This was all made possible by the help of Edmodo. 

Everyone, including the teachers of the classes, seemed to enjoy using Edmodo to do collaborative work. 

I think the 5th grade students' number one reason for liking Edmodo for their writing is because we could read their writings and make comments on it. It also allowed them to explore their creativity more, because the students in my class gave them "prompts" in how to expand their portions of their stories. 

Their favorite activity from using Edmodo was the collaborative writing activity. They enjoyed having older people read their writing and give them feedback. I think it was my favorite activity too, because it allowed me to help build their self-confidence and show them that if they use just an ounce of imagination, they can accomplish so much!

I learned that Edmodo and other online collaboration is something that can be very useful in the classroom, and should be explored even more. The young students do appreciate any feedback that is given to them. It makes me feel good knowing that I was able to help a student express his or her creativity. 

If I were to use some form of collaboration in the classroom, it would possibly be another writing activity  like the one I participated in with this class. Writing is something that is becoming "outdated" and I feel that if it is instilled in students that writing stories as they get older, they will become better well-rounded individuals. Also, they will be able to develope their skills in accepting comments about their work from other people because they will have that experience with using Edmodo.