Edmodo is best described as Twitter for students and teachers. In reality though, it's basically a private micro-blogging service for schools with built-in security features that give teachers privacy controls over their virtual classrooms.

The Keys to the Classrom One of the nice features is that students don't even need an email address to join the classroom. All they need is the special sign-up code that the teacher generates when they create the environment. If a student has already joined another class on Edmodo then they can just log in as usual with their new class assigned to their login.







Virtual School Supplies This new micro-classroom provides social media tools for teachers and students, enabling them to share notes, links, and files in a modern way. Teachers also have the ability to send alerts to students regarding events and assignments. They will also have the option to post any item to a public time line if they so choose. Also handy is a calendar that keeps everyone in the know about upcoming exams and other events and special occasions.

Final Exam There seem to be Twitter-like environments sprouting up all over the place for different groups. Yammer and Present.ly are duking it out for the enterprise and now we have Edmodo taking aim at our educational system. Is this a good idea? I think most people will agree that it is. However, as with any idea or new startup there will be a segment that will hate the idea. Some of the concerns will be valid, though. For example, the security features need to be rock solid. Also, teachers need to be able to control and monitor this environment as easily as they can with their real classrooms.

Another thing that can become a very useful feature is the ability to communicate with students in the event of an emergency in real-time. Some services such as MySchoolAlerts have begun to address the need for such a notification system for teachers and students. If Edmodo can find ways to provide as many useful functions as possible for the classroom, then it'll just be a matter of time before we see this type of service in all schools.