Edmodo

Edmodo: How students submit work (Video)

I have made this video tutorial for 6th form students to show them how they can submit their PDP project electronically using Edmodo. It may be of use to anyone thinking about using Edmodo in their school.

In the past this project has been carried out on paper, but this year we decided to make it completely digital.

Once I have created the training video for how teachers will annotate and grade this work, I will post it.

 

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iPad Trial 2012-2013 – A few initial notes

iPad

A few notes I have put together with some thoughts of how I will implement the iPad trial in September.

We are looking at buying a class of iPads initially and then taking it from there.

Leading up to September:

  • Buy iPads from reseller
    • Check they will help with the set up. Decent ones will
    • Do we get protective covers?
    • What charging solution?
    • Which reseller?
  • Get a Mac set up for iTunes
  • Think about the Apps we would like to buy
  • Buy an adapter so we can mirror iPad on the board
    • Can we do this for the inset?
    • Is the projector wireless
    • Buy an Apple TV? Could be a winner? Check it works on the wireless. Again…reseller could help with this.
    • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy7Q2vrU7uI
    • Would be great for Skype or FaceTime
      • Could use an adapter instead…but it is not wireless.
  • Plan the inset – could be done after the initial 1st day.
  • Produce training resources for staff
  • Set up DropBox account
    • 1 per students?
    • Per class?
    • 1 for the school
  • Email Address?
    • Email for each iPad?
    • Will not be workable in the trail for students having to put in their own school address all the time
  • Do the apps we want to use work on the network?
    • Edmodo
    • Socrative
    • Evernote
  • Create some digital resources
    • iBooks?
    • PDF?
    • Convert some department resources and make available on iPad/DropBox

Trial

  • Show departments some example projects
  • Departments can then bid for the class set
    • Come up with their own ideas
  • Department should have some trial iPads to play with.
    • 1 per department?
  • Each department will have a champion
    • They will be trained.
    • They will train the other members if their departments
    • Ideally they will volunteer.
  • All “champions” will attend meetings
    • Successes
    • Problems
    • Ideas
  • Every class member will be allocated a iPad
    • They must have the same one for the length of the trial
    • Sign out sheet
      • They will need to tic the iPads out
  • Evaluation process for each project
  • Final evaluation for whole trial

Things to consider

  • Make projects creatives, engaging and relevant.
  • We need to use them for the more “boring” projects too
  • How will we manage the classroom?
  • How long will the trail go on for?
    • Till Easter? This will give us time to properly evaluate?
  • What do we want the outcomes to be?
  • If the trial is a success do we buy more?
    • 1:1?
  • If it does not work, what will we do to make sure it does
  • Parents open evening
    • Show what we have been doing
    • Get them involved and engaged.
    • Keep them in the loop
  • Share training videos on iTunes U?
  • If we create some lesson videos, ebooks, audio podcast we can share them too.

“I use my Mac for…” MacFormat Interview June 2012

iPad

I was lucky enough to do a very brief interview with MacFormat for this months magazine on what I use my Apple devices for.

Have a read below and I would also pick up the June edition as it has got some great stuff in.

Easter Planning – Kodu Part 5 (teaching resources)

Kodu

I have finally finished all the resources for my Kodu scheme of work. Its taken a while but I must admit its been great fun.

All the resources will be uploaded to Edmodo so that my students can access them from anywhere with an internet connection. This includes their smartphones. Tutorial videos will also be made available to encourage independent learning.

Below are all the resources I have created.

Links:

  1. Kodu Objectives Presentation (SkyDrive) (Google Docs)
  2. Evaluation (SkyDrive)
  3. Peer Assessment (SkyDrive)
  4. Checklist (SkyDrive)
  5. Documentation Example (SkyDrive)
I hope you find them useful.

Edmodo – Do you need to pay for a VLE? (presentation included)

I am sure that there are very few people who have not heard of Edmodo by now. However, for those who haven’t, or who are not sure what it is; I thought I would include a very brief overview.

Over the last few years I have used several expensive learning platforms and VLE’s. In my experience they have been overly complicated, time consuming and often did not do what the school wanted. Without going into too much detail, I know two schools who have both purchased a very expensive learning platform and instantly regretted it. Luckily they managed to get their money back. I can imagine these were the lucky ones.

I started using Edmodo a while ago and I have not looked back. Its fantastic, does pretty much everything I want, its easy to use and best of all its free.

Some will say its simply a stripped down VLE, I would say it is just streamlined.

Perhaps it is not as advanced as many paid for products, but how many schools actually utilize all the features found in these?

Please have a look at  presentation below. (Click here for the formatted presentation on SkyDrive) It should should give you a brief overview of what Edmodo can do. Hope you find it useful and perhaps it may save your school some money.