After going through the options for this classes Major Project, I was struck by the second option, to take a “Personal Journey Into Media.” This past summer, while enrolled in EC&I 833, I aired some dirty laundry and confessed to being a social media virgin. Up until this past summer, I was “pretty much” a social media virgin. You wouldn’t find me on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram. My one and only account was a Pinterest account I set up ages ago to enhance my creative side and pin some DIY home decorating ideas. To this day, I do not have Facebook or LinkedIn, but I do now have Twitter and Instagram. For EC&I 833, I created a Twitter account where I began following classmates and fellow educators. I have enjoyed reading tweets and posts from those that I follow and Twitters suggestions, but I have yet to do any tweeting of my own so far. Until now…
This has led me to diving in even further this semester by not only joining Twitter, and Instagram, but actually being engaged on these platforms and making regular posts. As an elementary teacher, my students are beginning to find themselves connecting on digital apps like these and it is important for me to have a solid understanding of what the apps are all about.
In addition to using Twitter and Instagram, I plan to research and test Messenger Kids and Edmodo. I have heard some of my students mention that they are on Messenger Kids, but I know it is only a portion of my students. Based on some early research I would like to look into introducing my class to Edmodo as it appears to be a social learning platform designed to connect in an educational setting. Perhaps this app will be a way for me to integrate curricular objectives and student learning while teaching my students to how to interact on social media!? It’s no surprise to any of us that our students lives are highly influenced by digital media from a very young age. Students as young as my second graders are staying up until 3 am gaming, watching videos and connecting with others online. Teaching media literacy and digital citizenship is certainly an important part of education today.
So here is a question for elementary teachers and parents, do you have any experience with Messenger Kids or Edmodo? Let me know what you think of them. I’m really looking forward to this digital learning journey.
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Hi Rae from down the street at Sacred Heart! I have used both Edmodo and Kids Messenger; one as a teacher and one as a parent. I really like the Edmodo platform, it was so easy for me to use and also easy for the students, it reminded me a lot of Facebook in layout, design, and ease of use. I could upload pictures, videos, link YouTube, etc, and it was all very visually appealing. I preferred it over google classroom but once COVID hit we were asked to either use google classroom or Edsby as our platforms so unfortunately I had to leave this behind. I do not recall if there was a gradebook option with Edmodo but I know I never used it if there was.
As for Kids Messenger, it was a great starting point into my daughter exploring this area of digital media and connecting with her friends; I hear some of my students this year talking about it and being pretty excited. I had to have the app on my phone as an anchor for her to have it on another device which was good because it gave me the ability to see all messages, respond to them if I wanted to, and she needed me to approve friends being able to talk with her on it. There were a few downfalls that I found, one being that not many friends had kids messenger so her contacts were very limited as many others were using different platforms, and the second downfall (if you want to call it that) was in order for it work it had to be connected to wifi or have access to data so I was constantly hot spotting her off my phone; more of a inconvenience then anything.
I can’t say that I have a lot of experience with either of those platforms, but I do want to say that similar to you, I am somewhat of a social media virgin. I mean, I have Instagram and Facebook, but I only use them rarely, and the guilty pleasure I have is not TikTok like most, by Pinterest. Yes, I’m pretty much a 100-year-old lady. I look forward to following along on your journey and seeing what you come up with! I enjoyed taking EC&I833 with you in the summer. Cheers to another!