Edmodo is a free social learning network for teachers, students and schools, providing a way to connect and collaborate, share content, access homework and grades, communicate, organize lessons, and much more.
It provides teachers a private, safe way to connect with their students and parents, organize and share lessons, share resources with students, manage projects, remind students of important dates, and even distribute quizzes. The fact that it is a private system is what makes it appealing to teachers and school systems. It's also free. There are also mobile apps, allowing access to Edmodo and it's features on your smartphone or tablet.
Edmodo recently announced that it has over 7 million users and is used in over 80,000 schools in both the US and around the world. Some of the biggest school districts in the US are deploying it across their entire district. It has managed to raise millions of dollars in investments and funding to keep it going.
One of the features that makes Edmodo popular and more "student friendly" is that it is similar to Twitter and Facebook in that it has a stream-based environment. Students and teachers can converse and communicate using a familiar stream, or conversation on a wall environment.
This past March, Edmodo also opened up it's API, the information and tools developers need to create apps that work with Edmodo, and is allowing educational app developers the ability to create apps that work with Edmodo. This will give these app developers a huge audience (Edmodo users) and a built in market to sell their apps. Edmodo will get a percentage of the sale, helping support the platform. Edmodo with have it's own app store for these apps and already has partners working to develop apps for it. It will launch this coming September. These apps will help Edmodo, and can be very useful to teachers and students in expanding learning opportunities and the functions of Edmodo.
Edmodo is a great resource for education. It allows teachers and students to communicate, collaborate, share, and learn, all in a private, secure environment.
This success is welcome news for teachers who are using it. It means that it should be around for quite a while. We only hope that with success, doesn't come any negative changes.
Edmodo home page: http://www.edmodo.com/
Source: TechCrunch
Related:
22 Great Tips on using Edmodo in the classroom
5 Great course management resources for educators
