Edmodo

Edmodo

File:Edmodo log-in page.png
Type of business	Private
Type of site	Social network service
Available in	English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Greek, French, Turkish, Dutch, Chinese
Founded	September 2008
Headquarters	San Mateo, California
Key people	Nicolas Borg, Jeff O'Hara
URL	edmodo.com
Registration	Required
Users	20,000,000+
Current status	Active

Edmodo is a "social learning platform" website for teachers, students, and parents. It is marketed as the Facebook for schools.

Applications

Edmodo can be incorporated into classrooms through including Reading, Assignments, and Paper-studying. Current uses include posting assignments, creating polls for student responses, embedding video clips, create learning groups, post a quiz for students to take, and create a calendar of events and assignments. Students can also turn in assignments or upload assignments for their teachers to view and grade. Teachers can annotate the assignments directly in Edmodo to provide instant feedback.

Parents can also view this website, either under their child's username or they may create their own account. The Parent accounts allow parents to see their children's assignments and grades. Teachers, subject to creating and maintaining parental records, could send alerts to parents about school events, missed assignments, and other important messages. Similarly, teachers can, subject to creating and maintaining class-participant data, generate printable class rosters. so if a teacher is going to have a substitute teacher in their classroom who needs a printed roster, they can print one from an Edmodo account.

Student and, possibly parental, data is normally already maintained in a school's information management system and so would require ongoing effort and care to duplicate and maintain data on Edmodo outside the school's own security controls.

Edmodo, as with any social network, can be used as a place to post and critique work, facilitate collaboration, and post creative writing for an audience. it is also subject to the same potential misuses as other social networks. In early December 2012, Edmodo underwent a style revamp to attempt to provide easier browsing, emoticon responses to assignments, and the addition of two apps, a photo editor and SchoolTube, an educational video site.

Implications

The implications of a commercial company holding personal information and contact details for parents and students might need to be given careful consideration dependent upon national legal requirements.

Statistics

As of December 2013:

• The Top 100 Tools for Learning site in its 2013 list shows Edmodo in 29th place (down 7 places from the previous year) behind other collaborative sites such as Twitter (1st), YouTube (3rd), WordPress (8th), Facebook (9th), Moodle (11th), Skype (13th), Word (17th), Blogger/Blogspot (18th).