Technology Reflection: Instructional Use of Edmodo

Technology Reflection Assignment

In class today, several new technologies were demonstrated to the class. The first was Emodo, a social networking site for educators and students. It was pretty simple to use, and could be great to use with older students who already have things like facebook. The site provides an opportunity for teachers to connect with students, teachers to connect with other teachers, and students to connect with other students. Social networking sites like Emodo allow the influence of teachers to extend beyond the classroom and into students’ home.

Application

Learning outcomes: Students will learn how to convert fractions to decimals to percents.

Learners: 4^th grade math students

Assessment: I would be able to access what the students learned by looking at their quiz scores. If I see a pattern of many students missing the same question I will know that the class as a whole is struggling to learn that mathematical concept.

Timeline:

1. In order to give the students the prerequisite information, I would do a lesson about converting fractions to decimals to percents that day in class.
2. That afternoon, I would compose a quiz that will be given through Edmodo covering the conversions we went over that day in class.
3. The quiz would become available to take through Edmodo approximately 1 hour after school lets out that day.
4. The students will have to log in to Edmodo and take the quiz by midnight. The quiz itself would be around 20 questions, and would have a 45 minute time limit on it.
5. The next day I would have the scores compiled and would reinforce any concepts they are struggling with.

Reflection

Pedagogy-Content:

When teaching topics like fractions, decimals, and percents, it could be helpful to teach the content through visuals, or better yet, objects that students can hold in their hands. The classic example is to represent fractions with pizza or a pie of some sort. This applies the topic to real life, tangible examples that the students are already familiar with. Many students will come in to the lesson with knowledge of simple fractions, percents and decimals, but with limited knowledge on how to convert them. Dividing something into pieces is an experience many students are likely familiar with already. Some students from low SES may not have much experience with services like Edmodo as other students.

Technology:

Edmodo allows for the education experience to continue at home. It provides a way for teachers to send content such as quizzes and practice material to students outside of the classroom. Beyond just assignments, it allows the teacher to develop a rapport with their students. The website itself is easily accessible, but of course requires that the students have access to a computer that has an internet connection. This could be a problem for low SES students.

Technology-Pedagogy:

Edmodo would be used to administer an online quiz on the mathematical concepts explored that day in class. In terms of changing how I teach the activity, I would have to make sure to really teach the concepts well enough that the students could use them on their own at home that night. I would likely have to spend more time than usual on the topic to ensure the students can do the problems on their own. Edmodo would not really require me to change my classroom management strategies, as it would be used outside of the classroom for the most part.

Technology-Content:

I would have to present the lesson on converting fractions in a way very similar to the way the quiz will be formatted. Likely, I will get them accustomed to solving problems such as “convert ½ to a decimal” and the problem could be accompanied by a picture. I would have the students do some independent practice with a worksheet in order to ensure they are able to do the math on their own.

Technology-Pedagogy-Content:

For a lesson on converting fractions to decimals to percents, it would be important to teach the concept both verbally and visually. In addition to talking about how the conversions work, I could also use visual aids like pictures, or give the students little plastic pie slivers to visually represent the various fractions. In order to teach the students how to use Edmodo, I would have to demonstrate it for them in class, and then take them to the computer lab to practice using it themselves with my guidance.

Edmodo would enhance this lesson because it would put the students in a situation where they would be reinforcing their knowledge through independent practice outside of class. Provided the students do well on the quiz that night, I could move on to more complex concepts using the core concepts they mastered the day before. By providing practice outside of class, Edmodo allows me to move confidently move on to the next topic, or review the previous day’s content if they do not score well on the quiz.

Edmodo would provide an opportunity for me to modify my teaching strategies if I see that the students were unable to apply the concepts from class. By observing how the students perform on the Edmodo quiz and comparing it to the teaching strategies I used that day, I could continuously modify my teaching strategies to those that result in the highest Edmodo quiz scores. This also ensures that I would be teaching in a way that allows the students to recall and apply the content learned in class.