Edmodo for Education
I’ve submitted to a few conferences to speak on microblogging. The Twitter scalability issues have me worried that we might lose Twitter before the conferences roll around, but at least I know things like Plurk, Jaiku, and Pownce will rise up to take its place. Microblogging is here to stay, even if Twitter might not be.
With that in mind, I’d like to talk a little about alpha-stage startup Edmodo. When I’m done with this post, you’ll know as much as I do, but believe me, I intend to find out more.
I’ve blogged before about potential uses for microblogging (Twitter or otherwise) in education. Well, Edmodo takes some of those ideas and turns them into reality in one easy-to-use software app geared at the classroom.
Some of the more interesting features, beyond the standard community and conversation, are the ability to tag a post for future reference. As you may be familiar, in Twitter, you can favorite something. This is a step above that, adding a del.icio.us-like capability to the app. You can also share media files, such as images or videos. Media sharing is one of the advantages that Pownce has over Twitter, and I’m glad to see that Edmodo incorporated this option for education.
I’m not yet sure when they’re going live. The video you see here, from early March, says "a few weeks," so I guess that didn’t happen. I hope to get in touch with the developers soon and see how things are going. I think this is a fantastic tool.
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Find Michelle Lentz here at Write Technology, on bub.blicio.us, on Twitter, or Pownce.
Jeff O'Hara
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:31 pm #
Hey thanks for the great writeup about edmodo. Hit me up by e-mail anytime you need anything or want to try edmodo out. We are very very close to launching our beta. We were a bit ambitious when we wrote that back in March
-Jeff