Math teacher Ebony Anderson-Johnson is one of Grady’s pioneers for the use of Edmodo, an online classroom tool that can be used to post or turn in assignments and have discussions online. She was introduced to the tool during a gifted endorsement program for APS. Hoping to connect with students through technology, Anderson-Johnson brought the program to campus.
“I love technology more than I love math,” Anderson-Johnson said. “I find that students like Facebook and Twitter, and social networking is the way to go. So the fact that we can incorporate that into the classroom, I thought would spark some interest and engagement in our students and increase achievement.”
The layout and appearance of Edmodo caters to the Facebook generation. Junior Allison Rapoport notes the similarities.
“It is definitely a copycat, which is good because we all know how to use Facebook, so we all know how to use Edmodo intuitively,” she said.
AP Calculus and AP Statistics teacher Andrew Nichols is one of several Grady faculty members who have adopted the use of Edmodo.
“[It is better than a website] because it has the ability of having students actually join,” Nichols said. “If we have a paper to turn in or a proposal to turn in, [students] can turn in that proposal on Edmodo, and then I can actually respond to them.”
So far, students give Edmodo mixed reviews. Senior Sofia Sifnaos finds Edmodo’s many capabilities helpful, citing online worksheets and mobile notifications for new assignments as examples. Rapoport, who uses Edmodo for her literary magazine class and AP Calculus class, has a slightly different view.
“I think right now nobody really uses it unless they need to check homework,” she said. “So I do not think it is really useful right now.”
Some teachers are using Edmodo more intensively. Freshman Chloe Prendergast’s Accelerated Math II class taught by Linda Brasher is using the “flipped classroom” teaching method, one also used by Anderson-Johnson. Students teach themselves the material at home through recorded videos and lessons, then come into class to work on problems.
Anderson-Johnson said using a flipped classroom allows students to work at their own pace, enabling more one-on-one time for students having trouble with problems.
Prendergast has reservations about this new method of learning.
“I am scared that I’m not going to understand one thing in the video, and then I won’t be able to understand the rest of [the video] because normally you’re able to ask questions halfway through [a lesson],” Prendergast said.
Nichols, who is using the flipped classroom model in moderation, has not yet experienced any major problems with his usage of the site.
“As long as students use it responsibly and post things appropriately, then I don’t really foresee there being any big problems,” he said.
Edmodo is not without slight scandal. An unknown student used Sifnaos’ account to send the message ‘im lame af’ to the page for her AP Environmental Science class. Whether incidents similar to Sifnaos’ will plague the website and hinder its effectiveness remains to be seen.
Although it is early in the year, Nichols predicts Edmodo will have a strong presence at Grady.
“[Administrators] are making a big push, so it should be a large number of teachers once everyone gets set up and gets going,” he said.
