andykemp.org.uk

Following a conversation that @misterel and I had on twitter about Edmodo on twitter @zemote the co-creator of Edmodo suggested we put together a wish list of what we thought Edmodo would need to be able to do so that it would make a viable VLE for a secondary school.  We decided to manage this task by creating a scratchpad in etherpad – this was my first experience of several people using Etherpad in real time and I must say I was very impressed but I shall leave that for another post…

Below is a summary of the thoughts of those people who stopped by as they were expressed in etherpad:

Features Edmodo would need to be used as a VLE in a secondary school:

• Option for local hosting!!  Some schools internet connections are just not reliable enough for a remote service – would be happy pay some licence fee… @andykemp

• More integration options – would like to see some option to integrate calendars more fully – i.e. central school calendar which students can subscribe to… @andykemp

• Some form of internal Quiz system – Multiple choice etc within Edmodo @andykemp

• Support for SCORM Material – this comes back to local hosting as well in terms of the huge size of some of the SCORM packages… @andykemp

• More developed Paging system allowing for the joining of multimedia content (text, images, audio, video) together. @andykemp

• Ability to share pages between groups (i.e Maths department Y10 page is available to all Y10 groups but no-one else) @andykemp

• Easy system to upload users, or even integration with MIS systems @andykemp

• Some form of survey/questionnaire to be able to collect in data on the student voice ? @andykemp

• A more structured forum system in addition to the great microblogging tools @andykemp

• some form of lesson planning or Scheme of work development that pupils, parents can access @misterel

• a global markbook @misterel

• the ability for students to create an eportfolio of work @misterel

• the ability for subject areas to create a portfolio of exemplar material @misterel

• An ability to link with feeder primary schools so that there is a smooth transition from primary to secondary. @misterel

• the ability to customise it with a ‘school’ brand @misterel – This is a really good point, some form of ‘corporate branding’ is essential to get SMTs on side… @andykemp

• the ability to create different roles within the VLE.  For example having sixth formers who can moderate forums. @misterel

• the ability to add widgets or APPS?? @misterel

• facility to have a school wide admin, who is a member of every school group and can edit pages etc…  Also need generally more central admin. @andykemp

• Using the current model of central hosting what I would like to see if the option to create a ‘School login’ then from within this you get access to create school wide groups, teacher, student accounts etc.  This should also all different schools to use the same group names.  This would also feed into the ideas about having a central calendar (managed by this central account), and the ability to import users from a MIS.  Also the ability to manage membership of groups and permissions to see public pages…  These school accounts could then remain completely private to the outside world… @andykemp

• a really nice feature I have seen coming in a few VLEs is the ability to draw/paint directly in the VLE.  I would really love for Edmodo to allow drawing directly into the rich-text field thing.  Also would love to be able to record audio and video directly into Edmodo without having to do it externally and upload… @andykemp

• An ability for teachers to slightly customise the apperance of the groups they make (like on Twitter where you can change the background image and a couple of the colours). @simonhaughton

• From the primary perspective it would be great to let 2 or more teachers be instructors on a single account so that different schools can interact on the same topics and still DM their own teacher or ask other teachers as the experts. @mrkp

RADICAL THOUGHT:

Would we not be better trying to try to transparently integrate moodle and Edmodo?  Fundamentally the features which are missing from Edmodo are all in moodle…  A well integrated solution could well be an excellent compromise from trying to add all these features into Edmodo…  What do people think? @andykemp

Another thought in a similar vein a possibly why this list is being created is the need for moodle to be as user friendly as Edmodo. @misterel  I agree, having used Moodle for a couple of years it was the ease of use of Edmodo that I found so appealing.  Moodle whilst being very powerful it not very easy to use… @andykemp

These were the ‘blue-sky’ wish list thoughts of those who were able to stop by…  What do you think?  Any thoughts add them to the comments…