“It’s Facebook for the classroom.”  That’s a common description for one of the most impressive EdTech platforms out there, but it’s likely quite unfair.  The visual resemblance between Edmodo and Facebook may be uncanny, but the use case for Edmodo is terrifically different.  Between content management, social, and analytics, Edmodo shows promise beyond just being your classroom profile and newsfeed.  The potential for the company is sky high, but at the same time, my biggest reservation about Edmodo is around its ability to – truly – transform education.

Features

Edmodo’s main feature is “social,” in other words, imagine having a separate Facebook just for your classmates and your teacher.  Everything that popped up your newsfeed was related to your class and the only people you could communicate with were your peers and teacher. I’d like to think that would improve student engagement.  Facebook is the world’s greatest procrastination tool because it appeals to our very human desire for social connection as well as the darker, voyeuristic side of us.  Edmodo works by co-opting that promise of social connection and even voyeurism for an educational context.  You can send messages to anyone in your class, send out a blast, share homework assignments and pictures, not to mention watch your peers’ profiles and interactions the same way you “Facebook stalk” your friends.  You’d expect that would increase engagement with the classroom context then, even if only marginally.

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