What are Edmodo and Obami?
Both Edmodo and Obami are free classroom management tools that help you as a teacher make your classroom into a community. You would use either one or the other. They provide teachers and students with a secure place to post messages, discuss classroom topics, assign and grade classwork, connect and collaborate, share content and educational applications, and access homework, grades, class discussions and notifications.
Classroom uses of Edmodu and Obami
*Both have a user-friendly interface which is easy and simple for all to use
*There are easy-to-use wizards for creating calendars, pages and managing documents
*Teachers can set up and manage small groups for students projects
*Students can post notes, files, links, and discuss.
*Teachers can post spelling, maths, research and other homework on Edmodo so that parents can access it
*Students can help each other with homework tasks through using Edmodo
*Reading groups could use Edmodo or Obami to role play characters in the book they are reading.
*Students can ask questions they may feel silly about voicing in the classroom.
*Students can contact the teacher and send messages about homework they might forget to ask during the day.
*Edmodo is useful for project-based learning (see Further Reading post below). This would also be the case for Obami.
*You could post a document, students could download it, complete it and send it back to you, then you could grade it right online. Students could get instant feedback on graded materials.
SchoolNet webinar on Edmodo and Obami
This is the recording for the the webinar that took place on Tuesday August 14th at 6pm. Lisa Gair from The Rock Academy spoke about how she uses Edmodo in her classroom, and Siobhan Louw from Somerset House spoke on how she uses Obami in her classroom. NO: There might be slight gap in Siobhan’s recording as my internet dropped and I had to log in again. Apologies for that. Here is the link:
http://meet78641452.adobeconnect.com/p78kokkty1y/
Slideshare on Edmodo
Lisa Gair has kindly allowed me to share the PowerPoint she used with you.
Further reading
http://blog.edmodo.com/2011/05/27/pbl-edmodo-awesome/
http://edmodoteacherhub.wikispaces.com/Teaching+Strategies
I registered for Edmodo and received 13 emails from them on Saturday ;-( not impressed.
ReplyDeleteClaire
I find it easy to create groups using edmodo. the five digit code got me confused, I thought it will be sent through my email and did not bother to cram it. i had to create another edmodo so as to be able to enter as a student. Creating quizes as well it can tecnify the classroom big time.
ReplyDeleteTessa Boyd. My task for tomorrow is to set up an edmodo account for my class! Sure it will be fun.
ReplyDeleteHi Fiona
ReplyDeleteWe currently use Obami with the Grade 2 class. It is great. The girls love writing their status updates and writing blogs. We have also uploaded their science experiments to the video section for them to view each other's orals! The only problem we have with Obami is that when all the girls go onto Obami at the same time it does really slow down, and sometimes their work never makes it to be uploaded!
Love Judi
Hi Judi
DeleteThanks for the comment - great to hear that the little ones enjoy Obami as much as the older learners!
Sorry to hear about speed issues though :( We released a new and enhanced version of Obami earlier this year and boosted our server capacity quite substantially (thank you Internet Solutions!). We imagine that 20+ learners all uploading files to the site at the same time could make quite a dent on the school's bandwidth and probably explains this... Perhaps a quick check to see that files are optimised for web uploading (by being as small as possible!), and avoid everyone doing video uploads all in one go. Also worth shopping around for better adsl lines - some really good specials on 2mbps, 4mbps and (ideally for a school scenario) 10mbps.
By the way - we're presenting a number of different topics / workshops wrt Obami at the Innovate 2012 Schools ICT Conference at Wynberg Girls' High. If anyone's going, please come say hi (or pop us a message via www.obami.com)
Cheers,
Ennis
Hi Ennis
DeleteThanx for the reply. We only have 12 computers, but we have learned to let the children go on a few at a time...but you are right, our internet speed at school needs to improve...and we have put in for a second 4mg line...hopefully this will help! At the moment the girls are creating their own portals for healthy eating. The Grade 2 teacher, Jacki Steffen, tried creating one portal and then pages under that portal, but then it only allows one girl at a time to log on....but aside from that we have worked around it by each girl creating her very own portal....and only grade two! Obami is an amazing program. I love it! Judi
And, we love to hear how innovative the school is - thanks for the feedback. From Grade 2's all the way to Matric we are seeing some amazing things but this one is certainly an amazing case in itself. Keep up the great work Judi et al!
ReplyDelete