My Blog

This year I have commenced working in a new school and as a result all of the technological platforms that i created and embedded and fully utilised with my students at my last school are left with that school (as they were created with a school account and cannot be transferred to another school) and thus i must start all over again.

I dont see this as a burden but as an opportunity to perfect my practices and pedagogies. As this school is still in the very early stages of introducing BYOD, I have the opportunity to use technology platforms that i have not been able to use to their full functionality previously. The key learning platform that i plan to use with all of my classes is Edmodo. I have chosen to use this for a number of reasons, but primarily because many teachers within this school use Edmodo and therefore simplifies the accessibility for students to use. Students will access all of their classwork, assessment tasks, and assessment notifications via Edmodo. Moreover, Edmodo permits teachers to create quizzes an polls which can act as a tool to determine the students knowledge before and after studying a topic of work or to prepare them fr formal examinations.

The best part of using Edmodo is that has collaborated with Office 365. This means that i can create online word documents, PowerPoints, excel spreadsheets and more than can be accessed via Edmodo by my students. It also means that they can collaborate and work on the same document in real time.

I am also combining Edmodo, Office 365 with Google Apps that i can access via the Departments intranet. At this stage i am simply using Google Sites which will contain additional resources that my students will need to access. This will ensure that they gain a deeper understanding and knowledge of all content and be able to extend themselves outside the classroom. Google Sites is a very powerful tool as it permits students to view YouTube vids, download files as well as follo links to specific information. The best feature of Google Sites is that it is flexible and.dynamic and I can continue to use this for as long as im teaching (so for at least the next 20 years).

So what about students who haven''t yet jumped on the BYOD bandwagon? Thats not a problem. These resources are available for them to access when they are at home. Students can still use their exercise books and pens during class time and view all of the electronic work via my computer which is projected. I have always been a huge fan of blended learning and will always to push this as a necessary teaching and learning tool.