Edmodo - great tool, but you need the classroom teacher's support too!

I’ve been using this great educational social media site for a year or so and am now actively using it with the primary school classes that I work with. It has so much potential, but I have found that the level of student engagement is very much dependent on the outlook and enthusiasm of the class teacher for engaging with technology such as this – there are still many “old school” teachers out there who are reluctant (or not confident) to embrace social networking technologies which can assist in the teaching/learning game. How do we get around that?

In my situation, I am only at that school one day a week. They (the teacher) may be engaged and seemingly enthusiastic while I am physically there working with and encouraging them, but I feel as though the rest of the week is back in the dark ages. One teacher was unable to remember her login details to a group that she created for her class. Because she had not implemented the “post moderation” feature for teachers, not only was she totally unaware of what her students were posting in that group, but she was also unable to moderate inappropriate posts!! Poor practice!

I have decided to focus on those teachers who are open to the idea of modifying their practice, incorporating new technologies and who are willing to change and learn. They will then help spread the word – when others see the great things that they are doing in their classes, they may be encouraged to experiment with the same.

An example of this occurred with a class I had last year – I worked with a well-respected Year 6 teacher. Her students came up with some brilliant Prezis on Australian authors. When shown at assembly, she was swamped with praise and people wanting to know more about it. I then found myself with requests from new classroom teachers wanting to work with me the following term!

So, this is the approach I will focus on – continue to suggest ideas, encourage, mentor and support the “old-school” brigade, but at the same time grab hold of the more “contemporary” minds, introduce them to new ideas, technologies and things I’d like to experiment with and work together to WOW the rest of the school and convince them of the merits of these new ways of achieving learning outcomes.