Edmodo - a Twitter for education

One of the things that I often hear is that people really can't figure out a use for Twitter, and it leaves them completely cold. I can understand this, because until you really get into Twitter it IS a very odd thing, with apparently little value. However, if you choose your friends wisely it's an excellent way of keeping up to date with what's happening in the world, as well as strengthening bonds, promoting weblogs and so on.

However, the varied uses of Twitter isn't what concerns me in this post - it's a resource called Edmodo, which has been described as Twitter for education. You can use it if you're a teacher or a student - the registration asks you which you are, though it doesn't check at all. Once you're logged in you can use it very much like any other microblogging system. However, it does more than you might expect - it provides teachers and students the ability to share notes, links, and files to foster communication inside and outside of the classroom. Teachers also have the ability to post alerts, assignments, and events to share with their students. You can also embed video presentations for example quickly and easily. I've included a basic screenshot below which isn't very exciting because I don't have any students, but it should give you an idea of what it looks like.

To be honest, if I was a teacher in a school I'd be leaping headfirst into this because it does look really useful.

Comments

[Jeff O'Hara]

Thanks for writing about Edmodo. The feedback on this tool we built has been awesome and I thank you for help spreading the word about it.

[Nick Stamoulis]

This is a great tool! Will definitely pass this along to my friends in the education industry.

[Antonio Tapa-Perez]

I've just learned about emodo...and so far I'm liking it. I'm trying to teach my father about writing blogs at his site and using twitter...So adding emodo might be some overload. Hopefully I can teach an "old dog" some new tricks.

Thanks

Antonio