Edmodo

When I first used Edmodo, it made me think of free access to Blackboard for public schools. Edmodo is a social learning platform for students, teachers and parents. It was originally marketed as Facebook for schools. I always thought of it as much more than that.  Teachers can set up their classrooms, even small groups within the classroom, to facilitate online learning. The best part is that it is secure and the teacher has full control.

Edmodo is a web-based platform that provides a safe and easy way for your class to connect and collaborate, share content, and access homework, grades and school notices. Edmodo explicitly addresses concern about social networking for students in the following ways:

• Each edmodo class group is managed and controlled by the teacher
• Students need an access code to join the class. If a student shares the code outside the class, the teacher can change it, without affecting students already joined in the group.
• Students can only communicate to the whole class or to the teacher – private messages between students are not possible.
• Anonymous posting is not possible.
• Teachers can delete posts.
• If schools upgrade (free) to the institutional features, the school can audit all teacher and student activity.
• Parental access to their children’s posts and to the teacher is an optional feature.