MathsClass

Handling the Inappropriate

Saturday, 24 October 2009 | 9 Comments

Week 1 is over, and I need to reflect on what happen when I introduced laptops into my classroom.

The simple activities for getting our laptops ready for work and personalising them were well received.

However, I was left stunned after introducing them to Edmodo. I was keen to use this Facebook-like web-application designed for classroom use. Shortly after Edmodo was released, I tried to get it unblocked, unsuccessfully. Months later I noticed that it had been unblocked. So, when Year 9 got their laptops, it was a perfect opportunity to introduce this to a class.

I got my class (Year 9 Maths) to sign-up, it was the last session of the day. Very quickly, the students found that they could post messages for everyone else in the class to see – not a big deal, it’s part of the application and one way it allows for a different type of collaboration in the classroom.

When I got home and logged-in to Edmodo I was taken a-back by the number of inappropriate messages. I was going to give an example here, but I’m sure you know what inappropriate is.

I’ve been thinking about this all week, and discussing with my colleagues:

What I think I did right:

• Expectations for appropriate behaviour had been introduced the day before, and were revisited before introducing this application.
• I explained that I could monitor all activity.

• I explained the consequences for inappropriate behaviour.

What I think I did wrong:

• I introduced this on a Wednesday, but would not see this class again till next Tuesday. Therefore, apart from interacting on the site, I had no way to get in front of the class and discuss the inappropriate behaviour.
• I did not set up sufficient guidelines for use of the application (aside from behaviour), for example: it should only be used during Maths (not every other class during the day).

• I did not change the group code after the intial lesson. The students, after about two days, worked out that they could give the group code to other Year 9 students… very quickly I had lots of Year 9 joining my class group for a chat.

Ways that Edmodo could be improved:

• An ability to “time-out” a student who is not using the site appropriately. I changed one student’s password as she was not using the site appropriately, she just signed up with another username.
• Set “operating hours” for your group. For example, a button for teachers to turn the discussion feature on/off – allows me to monitor my class, rather than wondering what they are talking about whilst they’re in English and I’m teaching another class. I see this as a way to slowly introduce social networking at school.

• Provide far better user-management for teachers.

Some other thoughts:

• A step too fast? Generally, the students at my school have poor social skills. We’ve identified this in the past and been actively working to improve the way they relate, respond and talk to staff and students. Maybe I took this on too early.

• In some ways, I think this is a consequence of the blocking of everything social approach that the Department has taken. We have not really had an opportunity in the past to deal with these issues, because students have not had access to social networking online.

In the end, I shut down the group. I was monitoring live on Friday, responding to inappropriate comments, and deleting them – the students could see me doing it, it continued. Further, they were using this in other teacher’s classes – it was simply not fair for me to unleash this on other teachers without warning (mind you, these other teachers obviously didn’t notice).

• ← Computer Aided Homework
• Report writing season →

Post a comment