A Glimpse of the Future of Online Education with Edmodo

"Building Community" by Professor Curt Bonk of Indiana University was a very eye opening experience that tied together many of the ideas taught to me by various educators through the years.  While the lecture was aimed at building an online community, the idea that resonated within me was that building online communities is very similar to building offline communities, just with a different set of tools.

Blueprints (The Planning Stage)

Building a structure requires materials, tools, plans and management expertise.  Building an online community is no different.   In the place of materials you have the students or participants, the tools are the technological components, the plans can be the instructor's vision and finally the management can refer to the instructor themselves.  Bringing all these things together to create a vibrant community is no easy task.

When contemplating an online community it helps to establish your vision and goals so you know what you are working towards and can foster attitudes that support that mission.  Things to consider are:
• Allowing users to create an individual identity through icebreaker activities or creating profiles
• Develop a shared mission or purpose statement allowing all participants to contribute ideas
• Establish community habits or shared experiences to create a unique group identity
• Encourage use of photos and videos which elicit emotional responses within the community
• Provide ample opportunity for feedback, contributions or knowledge sharing

Raising the Roof (The Building Stage)

The reason the "Building Community" video resonated with me is due to experiences I've had this semester with my own middle school age students.  I've struggled with how to incorporate all the different personalities in the classroom while accomplishing the goal of educating them.  Middle school students perhaps more than any other group struggle between defining themselves as individuals and trying to find their identity within the group due to the unique stage of becoming a teenager.  I've found that creating an online community can help with this struggle.

The online community portion of my classroom has centered around my adoption of Edmodo as a tool in the classroom.  This community is still evolving as I seek to gain the attention of the students, allow them to develop as individuals and create a classroom environment online.  The advice given by Professor Bonk has been instrumental in helping me come up with ideas to foster the growth of this community.

Lessons Learned

Professor Bonk suggested introductions, icebreakers and creation of profiles and I think this was an excellent idea.  My initial Edmodo experience just had the students fill in their profile information, but as I've looked over profiles I have learned so much about each student and their motivations.  I did not opt to do a full icebreaker/introduction activity since my our Edmodo experiment began seven weeks into the school year, but I'm seriously considering having students complete one over track out because I realize I know so little about their motivations due to the comments made online.

Professor Bonk suggested creating logos, rituals and shared forms of identity among classes, and this is another area I feel merits my attention.  These types of activities create motivation and participation especially among students who yearn for recognition.  Often we forget how important recognition is and in the case of my students many of them struggle with finding ways to stand out in a positive light.  I think our online community can help alleviate this dilemma.  At the same time, other students can contribute feedback and given time develop a more lively community.

Finally, Professor Bonk suggested making sure your virtual space was one in which people could not wait to come back to.  This is an area where I've given a great deal of thought towards.  My recent attempts have been to add funny content area videos, game apps, and polls in addition to the required homework assignments.  This is an attempt to associate Edmodo with fun and WORK!  Thus far, I seem to have about fifty to seventy percent of the students attention based on assignment completion rates.

Questions Moving Forward

The biggest question on my mind moving forward is how to sustain interest in Edmodo along with how to get the students to take over a more active role in generating community content.  In the short term, student involvement in Edmodo should also help with classroom discipline issues related to student boredom or disinterest.  The bigger picture however, is that through Edmodo and online learning, students will develop 21st century skills that will pay dividends in their future endeavors.