Classroom or Edmodo

In the past I pushed to get teachers to adopt the use of Edmodo.  However, with the migration to Google accounts I chose not to actively recommend Edmodo this year.  Not only can Google Drive files be shared, they can be edited collaboratively.  In addition, at the end of school year 2014 Google was testing a beta version of a management site dubbed Google Classroom.  (Rather than calling it a classroom management system, or even a content management system, let's just call it a Google Drive management system.)

At the start of the year I figured teachers might feel a bit overwhelmed if I tried to get them to adopt booth Google Mail, Google Drive, Google Docs AND Google Classroom.  As a result, I mentioned Google Classroom to very few teachers.

In spite of all of the above  Emily Martin (AHS) made use of Edmodo this year, and Matt Gillis (CHS/CES) used Google Classroom.  So, I thought I'd ask the two of them to briefly describe their experiences with these sites and give teachers a chance to consider them for next year.

Here are some remarks directly from Emily ....

Generally, I will use Edmodo with my upper-level Spanish classes. I give them a situation, and they have to provide a comment. For example, I provided a question in Spanish from a Spanish advice column. Students had to use a particular verb tense that we were reviewing to provide an answer for that question. Then, we discussed phrases such as “I agree,” “That is a good idea,” “I disagree,” etc., and how to explain why. Then, they had to comment on another students´ comment, similar to a blog. I have also used Edmodo as a tool on which students can save Power Point presentations if they do not have a flash drive, or for peer-editing: Students may share sentences that they have written, and then comment upon grammatical errors in other students´ sentences. Then, I comment about whether or not it is correct.
Immediately my students enjoyed the set-up of Edmodo. It is easy to log into, and the fact that it looks like Facebook makes it attractive to them. They seemed disappointed that it does not have all of the Facebook features like “friending” their classmates, but this was the main complaint. It also seems to motivate them to write in Spanish. I have noticed that they may not write in perfect Spanish on Edmodo, but they try with what they know, and they use Spanish more frequently than they do during a normal lesson. In fact, sometimes I do not even have to remind them to use Spanish – it is almost as if they immediately know that they need to use it on Edmodo, and they love to send funny and sarcastic Spanish messages to one another! I love to read their comments.
Overall, I give Edmodo a very good review, and I would recommend it to any teacher who would like to use it as an interactive slightly conversational tool, especially if you struggle with getting all of your students to participate during oral discussions in the classroom.

and here is what Matt had to say about google classroom:

 I've used Google Classroom with my 7th Grade Chorus class, who did a research project on a favorite pop star. It was very easy to set up an assignment for them and set a due date. Since the 7th graders have Chromebooks and Google accounts, it took very little time to get them set up and working. Once they started working, I could monitor their progress from Google account, and I could give each student personalized feedback. Now that they have turned in their projects, I can give them a grade and return it to them. I distribute the assignment and rubric, they do their research, type their notes, create their slide presentation, and get their grade all without using a single sheet of paper.

I'm in a situation where my classroom gets used by others, and at certain times of the year I have to  hold class in different places throughout the school. The flexibility of being able to work on their projects anywhere without the hassle of walking around to each computer with a flash drive was an absolute God-send. There are other apps that can be integrated with Google Classroom to create a rubric and tally a score on the assignment as well. I haven't yet explored those options, because they seem pretty difficult to work with. I will just stick with Classroom for now.
Although Google Classroom just recently came out of Beta testing, I really like the features it has so far. I look forward to what new features will be added to classroom as time goes on.

The big advantage of google classroom is that it integrates well with Google drive --its'strong point is managing the flow of files. It also allows students to use a single log in  Edmodo, on the other hand, is aimed more at classroom management.  The difference can be seen by looking at some of classroom's limitations. According to Alice Keeler, Classroom will not:

Google Classroom does not handle course enrollments like you would find in an LMS or CMS.  Google Classroom does not have a gradebook.  Google Classroom does not track student participation. While students can comment in Google Classroom, there are not discussion boards.Google Classroom does not integrate quizzing features....Google Classroom does not allow teachers to create content within the system. Instead, teachers link to content they build in other places such as Google Docs.  Google Classroom assignments can not be organized into modules or units.

This is not to say that Alice Keeler doesn't think highly of Classroom, after all, she states,  "Since it is from Google, it integrates with Google Drive in amazing ways." and offers a list of 50 things you can do with classroom. In essence, Classroom allows you to set up an environment to both distribute and collect assignments. She offers an entire collection of posts on the use of Google Classroom.

You might consider adopting one of these two in the fall, however,  before making a decision, I'd recommend that you wait until August or September to do so because Google Classroom is evolving as I write and some of the things listed as limitations above, may have be available this fall.

Chromebook

I was pleased recently to have the opportunity to examine and review a Google Chromebook by Acer.  The Chromebook is a “non-traditional” laptop running the Chrome operating system, as opposed to a Windows operating system.  Chromebooks are made by a number of different manufacturers in cooperation with Google.  They are non-traditional in that they depend on the Internet rather than a processor and hard-drive for most of what they do.  All of the typical productivity programs—programs for word processing, presentations, spreadsheets, etc. are housed on the web.  The documents produced are also intended to be stored on the web (although they can be stored locally on the Chromebook.) In fact, without an Internet connection a reviewer in the CNET Community states that “these laptops are pretty much like a paper weight.”

Because of their reliance on the Internet, rather than high end processors and enormous hard drives, the price for Chromebooks start at around $200.  At that price ACPS could by five of them for what we have been paying for a single laptop computer—and we would save on the cost of software as well. There can be little doubt, that somewhere in the future, school systems will supply computing devices on a one to one ratio with their students.  This price puts that day within reach.  Thus, our technology department is taking a close look at them. 

I was quickly impressed by a couple of things with the particular Chromebook I looked at. First, by eliminating the frame around the keyboard, the 11” by 8” case is able to house a keyboard as large as the one on my laptop.  Second, after using our current laptops, one also has to be impressed with the start-up time of a Chromebook.  They boot up in seconds and once started, you generally close the lid, they go to sleep, and they wake up instantly when you open the lid.

One of the drawbacks of this particular model is the relatively short battery life of four hours. The machine I reviewed has a 16 GB internal memory, although, at the same price Acer currently offers a model with 100 GB of memory. I should also mention that in the interest of keeping the Chromebook light weight and portable, they do not come equipped with CD drives. 

The low cost of Chromebooks seems to invite comparisons to iPads and other tablets.  One big advantage of the Chromebook over most tablets is that they have more ports—USB ports, a VGA port, a place to plug in speakers.  I gave these a try—I plugged in speakers, an external monitor, and a keyboard.  They all worked immediately without any of this “found new hardware” rigmarole.  As far as storage devices go, I plugged in an external hard drive, a USB drive and a memory card.  I found that the Chromebook had no problem reading jpgs, document files or MP3 files created on my Windows computer.  I didn't try my USB turntable (for vinyl records) because there is no Audacity type software available for the Chromebook at this point. 

Another interesting point of comparison with an iPad is that whereas Flash doesn't work on an iPad,  Java and Silverlight will not work on Chromebooks.  As a consequence of that, sites such as Successmaker and Imagine Learning will not work on a Chromebook without some type of virtualization.

The lack of an Audacity type program brings out one disadvantage of “cloud computing” as opposed to running programs locally.  Audacity is the only program I found, in my one week trial, that didn't have a free substitute available through Google or the Chromestore.   There are free, on line, photo and movie editors which work just fine on Chromebooks.   I understand that if you are into gaming, a Chromebook is probably not what you are looking for.  Because it is being done over the Internet, I experienced a bit more delay in response time as I made changes in word documents, etc.  The speed of one’s Internet connection is a big factor with a Chromebook.

There are, however, a number of advantages to cloud computing.  The files I create are available not only from the Chromebook but from my school issued laptop and iPad and potentially from  a smart phone.  When opening the Chrome browser, from any device,  I can scroll through home pages displaying thumbnails of frequently visited webpages (similar to Internet Explorer) and Icons for various apps from the Chromestore.  To me, these apps seem something like a hybrid between a web page and an iPad app. 

Overall, if one keeps in mind their limitations and realizes that they are not suitable for every application, then they are an excellent machine for the price.