CYCLE 1
How will the integration of Edmodo, a form of social media,
in the class as a forum for me to administer assignments,
collect assignments, administer grades, and
spark discussions and questions
among students affect their interest in the class
and their level of accountability and performance?
in the class as a forum for me to administer assignments,
collect assignments, administer grades, and
spark discussions and questions
among students affect their interest in the class
and their level of accountability and performance?
ACTION:
This year, I created an elective class called Digital Media. In this class, I planned to explore different kinds of technology such as video, online news resources, social networking, blogs, photos, podcasts, music, etc. Figure 1.1 is the syllabus for this class.
This year, I created an elective class called Digital Media. In this class, I planned to explore different kinds of technology such as video, online news resources, social networking, blogs, photos, podcasts, music, etc. Figure 1.1 is the syllabus for this class.
Figure 1.1 Syllabus for Digiral Media Class
My goal was to integrate Edmodo, a form of social media, as the main communication and management tool for teaching this class. In order to do this properly, I approached it in incremental steps.
· Step 1: I took a survey of my students. Out of 24 students in my class, 22 of them had a Facebook and/or Twitter account, and some of them also had Tumblr and Instagram accounts as well. I then asked how often they use one or all of these accounts. Table 1.1 depicts how often members of my class actually engage in some sort of social media. Since so many of my students already used certain social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter, I believed it would be easy enough to integrate Edmodo as an actual alternative, at least for the purposes in my class. According to the Education Advisory Board, Table 1.2 below illustrates how often students in general use social media sites. The findings are in close accordance with the numbers in my class and support the idea of students being at ease with social media as a form of communication.
· Step 1: I took a survey of my students. Out of 24 students in my class, 22 of them had a Facebook and/or Twitter account, and some of them also had Tumblr and Instagram accounts as well. I then asked how often they use one or all of these accounts. Table 1.1 depicts how often members of my class actually engage in some sort of social media. Since so many of my students already used certain social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter, I believed it would be easy enough to integrate Edmodo as an actual alternative, at least for the purposes in my class. According to the Education Advisory Board, Table 1.2 below illustrates how often students in general use social media sites. The findings are in close accordance with the numbers in my class and support the idea of students being at ease with social media as a form of communication.
Table 1.1. Frequency of Social Media usage by my students in my
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Table 1.2 How frequently students access social
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· Step 2: I established a group called DigME (Digital Media) on Edmodo and asked all the students to join the group. When joining a group on Edmodo, it is done by using a password that is specific to that group. This ensures a closed and private group among members of the class, and only the administrator of the group may add members. By having this feature, it helps keep things private and secure among students and the teacher in the class.
· Step 3: I asked basic questions like “What do you like most about our school?” or “What do you expect to learn from this class?” These kinds of questions were asked to accustom students to using Edmodo, but more importantly to get information from them about their interests and to encourage them to perceive Edmodo as an integral part of the class.
Below is an example of one of the very basic questions I asked to instigate use of the site. I did not want to jump in head first with major assignments so the students did not immediately associate the site with hard work. I wanted to keep the activities light and fun so as to engage the students. I wanted to make Edmodo as intriguing and interesting as possible, make it kind of the mainstream form of social media in school so they could respond and even instigate communication. It was my belief that the learning through the tool would come later, first we had to learn how to use the tool and get comfortable with it.
· Step 3: I asked basic questions like “What do you like most about our school?” or “What do you expect to learn from this class?” These kinds of questions were asked to accustom students to using Edmodo, but more importantly to get information from them about their interests and to encourage them to perceive Edmodo as an integral part of the class.
Below is an example of one of the very basic questions I asked to instigate use of the site. I did not want to jump in head first with major assignments so the students did not immediately associate the site with hard work. I wanted to keep the activities light and fun so as to engage the students. I wanted to make Edmodo as intriguing and interesting as possible, make it kind of the mainstream form of social media in school so they could respond and even instigate communication. It was my belief that the learning through the tool would come later, first we had to learn how to use the tool and get comfortable with it.
Figure 1.2 Screenshot of student responses to a basic question asked to instigate usage of the site.
· Step 4: Once students felt more comfortable with using Edmodo, I stepped up the game by adding and integrating classroom activities and eventually learning components into this now accepted social medium. Students were smart enough to know what I was doing. They were not completely fooled into thinking the use of the site was completely their choice; they still knew that participation was part of their grade. However, they did not seem to mind as much because they were using Edmodo regularly to hand in assignments and receive clarification on instruction, and what’s more, they could do it from home on their own time. It was actually making things easier for them and even if I lost their interest in class that day, I was able to pick up on it later in the day while they were home, more focused, and separated from their friends.
EVIDENCE:
I collected information from my students through Edmodo about their likes and expectations from the class. I also collected information about each student in terms of his or her capabilities. By eventually having students “hand in” their assignments through the assignment tool on Edmodo, I was able to instantly see the extent of their knowledge and capabilities in the technology at hand and address it accordingly. I was also able to track the timeliness of each student and how quickly they handed in their assignment.
· One of the assignments was for each student to create a blog that was a reflection of their personalities to some extent. They also had to write a few sentences about their expectations for the year. After they finished with that, they had to post the link to their blogs on Edmodo so we could all go through them and make comments.
EVIDENCE:
I collected information from my students through Edmodo about their likes and expectations from the class. I also collected information about each student in terms of his or her capabilities. By eventually having students “hand in” their assignments through the assignment tool on Edmodo, I was able to instantly see the extent of their knowledge and capabilities in the technology at hand and address it accordingly. I was also able to track the timeliness of each student and how quickly they handed in their assignment.
· One of the assignments was for each student to create a blog that was a reflection of their personalities to some extent. They also had to write a few sentences about their expectations for the year. After they finished with that, they had to post the link to their blogs on Edmodo so we could all go through them and make comments.
Figure 1.3 A screenshot of communication between my students and me.
Figure 1.4 A screenshot of communication between my students and me.
By posting the links, the entire class had access to the sites and was able to “check out” their classmate’s work and comment on it. Unfortunately, most students did not comment on other students work at this point. When I asked them as to why there was no dialogue, their responses ranged from “I don’t know,” to “ I had nothing to say.” However, when we critiqued these blogs in class as a whole, viewing each one on a projector and screen, they all had comments and opinions on what they liked and how they would do things differently. At this point, students did not see Edmodo as a comfortable avenue of communication with each other.
· Another assignment the students had was to create a two-minute movie about them. I did not give too much direction so as to encourage them to figure things out for themselves. But also, I wanted them to be somewhat unsure and have questions to ask so they may use Edmodo from home when they felt unsure or stuck at a certain point in the project. I let them know that using Edmodo was an option, and I was eager to see how many actually took advantage of it. Figure 1.5 is an example of a student asking for help in regard to this assignment.
· Another assignment the students had was to create a two-minute movie about them. I did not give too much direction so as to encourage them to figure things out for themselves. But also, I wanted them to be somewhat unsure and have questions to ask so they may use Edmodo from home when they felt unsure or stuck at a certain point in the project. I let them know that using Edmodo was an option, and I was eager to see how many actually took advantage of it. Figure 1.5 is an example of a student asking for help in regard to this assignment.
Figure 1.5 A screenshot of a student asking for help with an assignment.
Unfortunately, there were not too many questions asked through Edmodo about this assignment. Either students did not really need help with the assignment, or they still did not think of Edmodo as a viable option of communication at this point. I asked students in class why they did not use Edmodo to communicate, and most of their answers were that they did not need help. However, after they presented, it was obvious to me that some of them could have used some direction. The Table 1.3 depicts the usage of Edmodo in regards to this assignment. Out of 24 students, 8 utilized Edmodo.
Table 1.3 Usage of Edmodo by students to seek help for their video project.
However, students did use Edmodo to hand-in their assignment with the exception of one student who received a failing grade. Students had to "hand in" the assignments through Edmodo. If you look below at Figure 1.6, the title "Assignment #6: Personal Video" you will see a box marked Turned in (23). If I click on that, it takes me to the list of students who handed in their assignments. From there I can view the assignments, grade them, and the students would be aware of their standing in the class immediately.
Figure 1.6 A screenshot of students "turning in" their assignment.
EVALUATION:
I evaluated the outcomes of the Edmodo posts, assignments, questions, etc. on a case-by-case basis. Each question and/or post served a different purpose and was evaluated accordingly. For example, when students were asked what their expectations were in the class, I took their answers into consideration and designed the class around their interests. When students were asked to hand in an assignment, their timeliness, correct format, and accuracy was used to grade them.
In this cycle, I wanted to measure two specific things, student engagement and student accountability.
· I measured and quantified student engagement at this point through the number of posts, responses, and feedback on Edmodo. The class was small enough to manually go through and disqualify responses like “ya”, “cool”, or “I agree”, and concentrate on more substantial posts and responses that contributed to the class and provided help to other classmates. Then I decided not to disqualify and posts, rather to label it and see how much students are using Edmodo for personal amusement and how much they are using it for furthering their achievement in the class. Table 1.4 is a summary of the quality of posts and usage of Edmodo. It is obvious that when the teacher is asking for a response, students are more apt to respond and post rather than when left to their own devices.
I evaluated the outcomes of the Edmodo posts, assignments, questions, etc. on a case-by-case basis. Each question and/or post served a different purpose and was evaluated accordingly. For example, when students were asked what their expectations were in the class, I took their answers into consideration and designed the class around their interests. When students were asked to hand in an assignment, their timeliness, correct format, and accuracy was used to grade them.
In this cycle, I wanted to measure two specific things, student engagement and student accountability.
· I measured and quantified student engagement at this point through the number of posts, responses, and feedback on Edmodo. The class was small enough to manually go through and disqualify responses like “ya”, “cool”, or “I agree”, and concentrate on more substantial posts and responses that contributed to the class and provided help to other classmates. Then I decided not to disqualify and posts, rather to label it and see how much students are using Edmodo for personal amusement and how much they are using it for furthering their achievement in the class. Table 1.4 is a summary of the quality of posts and usage of Edmodo. It is obvious that when the teacher is asking for a response, students are more apt to respond and post rather than when left to their own devices.
Table 1.4 Summary of the percentage of posts and responses by students.
· I measured and quantified student accountability based on the number of assignments that had to be handed in via Edmodo, compared to the number of assignments that had to be handed in hard copy. The difference between the two was staggering. Even though students are used to handing in paper assignments, they were more apt to “turn in” their work via Edmodo on time, rather than turn in their paper assignment. There was always an excuse of forgetting it at home, in their locker, etc. Table 1.5 compares the turning in of assignments rate of the two formats, digital or paper.
Table 1.5 Comparison of percentage of students who turned in homework via Edmodo and hard copy.
REFLECTIONS:
When deciding what to focus on as my Action Research, I knew I wanted to integrate Social Media into my research because it is such a prevalent part of our society, and it is such a prevalent part of students’ lives. A lot of times, it seems that the amount of time students spend on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram far exceeds the time students spend on their assignments. What movie they saw, which restaurant they ate at, their favorite songs or videos are things they post on social media sites and a lot of times their friends comment on these kinds of posts. Social media is here, it is being used, and it seems to be quite powerful. So in my first cycle, I decided to hone some of the power of social media into the classroom, and see if I could somehow draw students in and make them more interested, intrigued, involved, and concerned about the class.
I thought by introducing Edmodo in my class, I could harness the power of social media and engage students into lessons like they had never experienced before. From my experience, the over achievers will continue to achieve regardless of the conditions of the class they are in. But what about the average and the not so average students? I wanted to see if Social Media could somehow play a role in waking up these students, engaging them, holding them accountable, and actually exciting them about learning. My goal was to make Edmodo part of the class without them realizing it. At first it seemed to work pretty well. Students responded to the "casual" questions, quickly and with ease. However, when I began to ask students to hand in assignments and geared the use of Edmodo more toward class work, their interest wavered. However, as soon as students noticed that their grades were dropping, and that their performance was somewhat measured through Edmodo, they soon began participating again.
I believe that when left to their own devices, students take the easy way out usually. However, if there is some external factor holding them accountable to their work, like a teacher, grades, progress reports, or a social media site tracking their progress, then they will perform. My goal however, was to have students perform regardless of these external factors. I wanted them to feel comfortable enough and motivated enough to participate and perform. What was the missing element? Yes, if they participated they would get the credit; however, there was nothing past that encouraging them to do so. In a way they had nothing to gain (aside from a grade), no real advantage past their grade really drawing them in. My first cycle was a good start in establishing the idea and use of Edmodo; however, I need to think of a way or ways to better utilize all Edmodo has to offer. I do not want Edmodo to be another “have to” element of the class. I want it to be a “want to” element.
In my next cycle, I plan to further explore various ways to draw in the students so they feel like they are there by choice and actually need to use Edmodo to get to the next step of the assignment. I want the use of Edmodo to be “their own idea”.
I think there are so many possibilities of having use of such a tool in the class. However, because it is such a novelty in the class how to do it is not always so obvious. It is still in the discovery stage, and I cannot wait to discover what is next.
When deciding what to focus on as my Action Research, I knew I wanted to integrate Social Media into my research because it is such a prevalent part of our society, and it is such a prevalent part of students’ lives. A lot of times, it seems that the amount of time students spend on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram far exceeds the time students spend on their assignments. What movie they saw, which restaurant they ate at, their favorite songs or videos are things they post on social media sites and a lot of times their friends comment on these kinds of posts. Social media is here, it is being used, and it seems to be quite powerful. So in my first cycle, I decided to hone some of the power of social media into the classroom, and see if I could somehow draw students in and make them more interested, intrigued, involved, and concerned about the class.
I thought by introducing Edmodo in my class, I could harness the power of social media and engage students into lessons like they had never experienced before. From my experience, the over achievers will continue to achieve regardless of the conditions of the class they are in. But what about the average and the not so average students? I wanted to see if Social Media could somehow play a role in waking up these students, engaging them, holding them accountable, and actually exciting them about learning. My goal was to make Edmodo part of the class without them realizing it. At first it seemed to work pretty well. Students responded to the "casual" questions, quickly and with ease. However, when I began to ask students to hand in assignments and geared the use of Edmodo more toward class work, their interest wavered. However, as soon as students noticed that their grades were dropping, and that their performance was somewhat measured through Edmodo, they soon began participating again.
I believe that when left to their own devices, students take the easy way out usually. However, if there is some external factor holding them accountable to their work, like a teacher, grades, progress reports, or a social media site tracking their progress, then they will perform. My goal however, was to have students perform regardless of these external factors. I wanted them to feel comfortable enough and motivated enough to participate and perform. What was the missing element? Yes, if they participated they would get the credit; however, there was nothing past that encouraging them to do so. In a way they had nothing to gain (aside from a grade), no real advantage past their grade really drawing them in. My first cycle was a good start in establishing the idea and use of Edmodo; however, I need to think of a way or ways to better utilize all Edmodo has to offer. I do not want Edmodo to be another “have to” element of the class. I want it to be a “want to” element.
In my next cycle, I plan to further explore various ways to draw in the students so they feel like they are there by choice and actually need to use Edmodo to get to the next step of the assignment. I want the use of Edmodo to be “their own idea”.
I think there are so many possibilities of having use of such a tool in the class. However, because it is such a novelty in the class how to do it is not always so obvious. It is still in the discovery stage, and I cannot wait to discover what is next.