Mark Carls’ Blog

Glad to be down with NYS Math 7 and 8 grading!  Teachers are very good around here about getting that done and helping each other, so it went well, and I was am fortunate to have great teachers in Cattaraugus and Allegany County.  Oh yeah, lay off the Duke comments…..I know they’re out.  2009 is our year!

I’ve been able to go in and play with Edmodo in the alpha version thanks to the generosity of Jeff O’Hara.  The buzz is building and they continue to get closer to releasing it!  Many of the comments I’ve found have been positive.  In Edmodo (see the screencast teaser here) they are shooting for Twitter on steroids….is that the best way to explain it?  Probably not, but that is how I first heard about it as the “Educational Twitter”, but it can be so much more with the layering and organization of it.  In my mind it has a big leg up on Twitter in that regard.  It will be neat to see teachers reactions to be able to set up your class with bursts of information, but also with the ability to embed video, worksheets or documents and websites…..however, it is not in a wiki style.  There is the ability to store things long term in a locker and to keep that organized.  It is a miniblogging tool and more…..it is very interesting……I can’t wait to see it up and running…..have I said that already?

I was also trying to just brainstorm out loud as I try to figure it out more about how to get Edmodo to succeed, and my original thought is, of course, that teachers will need to go in and play with it, however, I think (especially as the weather in NY gets better and time the end of the year approaches) teachers will need to see a more finely polished product.  You have the ‘tinkereers’?<spelling> that will play and figure it out on their own, and hopefully spread good words.  However, many will need to see a big picture of a class already set up, and how they can use it in different ways.  I can see in the alpha version what some people have played with and that is great, but it would be nice to have some ’test teachers’ use it in a class to see what it would look like for one teacher and their students PLUS have some examples of how they used it in a classroom setting around curriculum.   Then, making it worth their while to set up a class and use it in their class.

HEY, I don’t know, I’m just spitballing here, for no apparent reason.  I think it will be great and would be willing to help in any way.  I am not a genius in the effective ways to start a new project, but can’t wait to see this one take off.  I truly appreciate all that Jeff and Nic have done so far and can’t wait (like everyone else to see it).  I probably messed them up enough by continuously trying to send a note and replying to videos already up there, but I couldn’t resist.  Thanks to Steve Dembo for also writing about Edmodo and feeding my craving!  Are all the best ideas coming out of Chicago lately????

I hope to keep this blog more updated at least until our trip to MB April 10th……now back to painting and fixing up this new house.  Can anyone figure out how to add 2-3 more hours to the day?

Mark

Twitter:  mcarls

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 11:30 am and is filed under Uncategorized and Tagged alpha, BOCES, Carls, Chicago, Dembo, Edmodo, math, microblogging, Teach42, Twitter, web 2.0 You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.