I have been following two communities related to my interest in crafting professional development. Edmodo and LinkedIn couldn't be more different.
The Edmodo "Professional Development" group is comprised of 178,000 teachers around the world. The LinkedIn "Organization Development Professional Group" is comprised of 11,300 business executives and agents of change in what appears to be mostly North America and Europe.
One sits in my comfort zone and one is uncomfortably "good for me." Can you guess which?
I feel very confident posting and replying in Edmodo, although the topics rarely relate to my interest of leading professional development. The group name was misleading. The topics focus on teaching, tech tips, and cool websites. Still, I got many great leads on digital production. I also feel as though my posts were beneficial to others, based on their replies and likes. The authors are just teachers who post links, questions, and suggestions. Everyone is welcome.
The LinkedIn group is way out of my league, so I lurk. The topics focus heavily on leadership, management, and coaching which directly relate to my professional development interest. The authors are generally well-established, professional writers. The LinkedIn posts will benefit my career no matter which direction it takes.
Which community will I continue? I'm more likely to continue the LinkedIn community. I want to change my career and this community will keep me immersed in the lingo and latest trends. Edmodo keeps me immersed in my former K-12 teaching career and I want to break out.
Woah. I never thought about Edmodo as a community to follow because I have only thought about it's uses for class facilitation. One business group I am a part of, the house board of Kappa Kappa Gamma at FSU, also uses Edmodo as a shared space to exchange files, conduct polls, and have discussions. That's very similar to having a class use the app. Pretty cool that you have found a PLN on that platform. Are you using the app to connect on your phone?
ReplyDeleteHi Meagan,
ReplyDeleteThat's cool your house board uses Edmodo. I, too, have found it an easy platform for group work.
There are a ton of communities and groups on Edmodo. Below is a google doc that lists them. The community I participated in was very active with 114 posts in 12 days, lots of likes and comments.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AiA0u4Ff4ojtdDFqa0xKaTQzN29KelpiMXpGTXpKbUE#gid=0
Yes I have used the phone app, but in perhaps a different way. Two years ago, as the professional development contact at my school, I used Edmodo to organize the 6 in-service days for my 78 teachers.
To receive points, teachers need to submit two forms of evidence for every workshop. By setting up an assignment in Edmodo, all teachers had to do was snap a photo on their phone of their evidence, which may be a student product or kids doing something in class. This occurs right in the Edmodo app and so the photo is directly uploaded into the assignment.
Such a time saver over having to collect evidence, walk to a scanner, e-mail it to yourself, then upload into Edmodo.
There are a few down sides to using Edmodo to track PD, which I can explain if you are interested.
Smiles,
M