This is something I have actually used in the past, but not to its full extent.
Korea is , unfortunately, a country that sometimes bases its judgement of how educated a person is on superficial qualifications. They tend to look at titles of schools, certificates awarded, etc. And that is not to say that we don't do the same thing; however, when pairing this way of evaluating people with an educational system that is, arguably, the most competitive in the world, the result is disastrous.
I started toying with Edmodo about a year ago, when our company was releasing its new curriculum. For the sake of market appeal, we were getting rid of our old text books and white boards, and replacing them with tabs and smart TVs. And, of course, the new curriculum had to be visibly impressive. It was...
Homer's The Iliad, Gladwell's The Outliers, to name a few, were some of the big-name titles that were on the roster. Also, a few teaching methods from Harvard professors were at the root of the methodology being used to teach these texts. The problem with this is pretty basic: Reading Homer at 20 years of age was really difficult for me. Teaching Homer at 28 was indescribably difficult. Learning Homer as a 15 year old EFL student in a foreign language proved to be impossible. Across the board, the books were too difficult for the students to get anything out of them. Edmodo offered me a way to talk about the texts, and provide supplementary material to maybe bridge some of the gap in understanding. I had mixed results.
Anyway, I talked to my old boss about using Edmodo with some of his teachers, and trying some new methods. Looking forward to the opportunity to reconnect with some of my foreign students!
Oh, interesting! That does sound like a difficult position to be in. I would love to hear more about your experience with EdModo in Korea...how did it allow you to talk about the text or bridge those gaps in ways that traditional class discussion didn't? In what ways were the results mixed? It sounds like you will be going back to EdModo this semester to connect with your old students and think about it through the eyes of our class...is that right? That sounds good...how do you envision yourself using it now? Since you have already used it, what questions will you bring to your use of it now?
ReplyDeleteWell, unfortunately a lot of the students in the class simply lacked the intrinsic want to learn the material. They are forced to study all day, and many of them even have to sacrifice sleep for the sake of doing homework. also, there is commonly a lack of respect for foreign instructors, as well as a disdain for the private academy setting. So I think a lot of the mixed results were stemmed from these variables.
ReplyDeleteBasically, I was having a hard time getting any of the kids to participate because they had no real incentive to do it. It is hard to convince a child that doing something for the sake of learning is reason enough...especially a child that has no free time.
So, while the kids who participated seemed to enjoy it, i didn't really get the response I was looking for.
For the kids who did participate, I was able to bridge the gap by simple means...The library really saved me. I posted summaries, video summaries, links to related materials, and eventually study guides for quizes that I posted and made a point system for. I hung a chart in class where the kids could monitor their progress, and then i announced the winner on the last day of class
Yes, that sounds like a context where full "success," whatever that might look like, would have been really hard for a lot of reasons--especially since it sounds like you didn't have much control over the curriculum. Connecting material to kids' lives wherever you can can can help with that, but that sounds like it might have been hard to do in that context. I am glad, though, that the site was able to help some of your students, and that you gained experience with it.
ReplyDelete