How to Share Information with Your Students on Edmodo

If you have read my previous Edmodo post on creating messages, then you should already have some pre-existing skills in order to post other information to your students. If you look in the center of your Edmodo home page, you will see the word bubble to post your messages. On the top of this box, you will see that by default, "Note" has been selected, but the teacher also has options for Links, Files and More.

If the teacher clicks on "Link," the typing box will change so that you can paste a website's url or embed code into the dialogue box. The box below this allows the teacher to type in a brief description and what the student should do on the web page. If the teacher copies the embed code off of a You Tube video, this can also be shared with the class as an embedded player in the class' wall, along with numerous other applications that have embeddable codes into your website. If the teacher has previously uploaded the url file to their library, they can hit the "add from library" button to post the web page as well. I use the "Link" option with my students so that they can review more in-depth instructions, rubrics and tutorials on my website.

Another option for teachers is by clicking on "FILE" they can upload a file that can be shared with the rest of the class. Teachers can upload an image for reference, study guide handouts, their lesson's instructions within their Power Point - whatever the students will need to complete an assignment or learn. Students can also post files, as I have been asking mine to go through the process of taking photos of their own work or examples of their favorite artwork as posts on Edmodo. And just like with the links, you can browse through previously uploaded files on your Edmodo library, which comes in very handy if you do the same assignments every quarter or semester.

The other option on top of the posting section is for "More." If the teacher clicks on "More," the options for Alert, Assignment and Poll will come up. An alert is a brief message, which must be no longer than one hundred and forty characters, which can be posted to your students in a flash. A poll is something that the teacher can easily create in order to get feedback from their students or possibly to assess their knowledge of current subject matter. The third option is for assignments, which I will cover in the next Edmodo article.

All of these posts of messages, files and polls can become quite messy on your Edmodo homepage. On the left side of the screen, you will see the option for "direct" which only one show information that was sent to me directly or we have the option for "everything," which shows everything that my students and I have posted. I can reduce that number a little bit more by selecting my individual groups, also on the left side of the screen, which will only show the posts of the students and myself within that individual class.

For the students, I tell them the easiest way that they can sort through all of the material is by clicking "filters" which they will see on the right side of their screen.

By selecting a specific filter, students and teachers can just focus on a particular type of content. For example, if I want my students to see my rubric without sifting through all of the other posts, they can just click on "links" and only my shared websites will appear to the students. The filter tool also comes in handy when students click on "assignments" they will instantly see what their homework is and how to do it. Teachers can also filter just the recent replies of their students to quickly monitor their progress and what is being said on the Edmodo site. Teachers can also use the section below "filters," labeled "tags," and like I have said before, this is a great way to have all of your information sorted for all of your students and where the teacher can easily access a file or information.

But that is it for now, for my next article, I will cover everything that teachers and students will need to know about assignments.

Resource: http://www.edmodo.com/guide/