Does Edmodo live up to its worth?

There are various mobile applications out there that help educators worldwide in connecting with their students better. One of the most popularly downloaded teaching apps is Edmodo. In this article, we intend to provide you an in-depth review of this application based on our first-hand experience using the mobile app on our iPad.

“Edmodo helps connect all learners with the people and resources needed to reach their full potential,” – Edmodo.com.

Interface:

With a Facebook-like interface, students will never get lost in using this app. It has the same blue lines with icons on the upper screen. Once logged into Edmodo, you are able to:

• view a newsfeed from other educators;
• create your own profile;
• receive notifications
• post lesson plans;
• take notes
• create tests and quizzes;
• Review your students’ scores.

From the looks of it, you can say that it’s specially designed to regain students’ interest to learn.

Features:

Edmodo comes with four special features (Engage, Connect, Measure and Personalize):

• Engage: If you have a lesson that you need to continue, you can do so online. Teachers can also create a poll to see if their students understood the lesson today. Students who excel in class will also receive award badges which they can collect. The award badges will be provided based on performance and behavior.
• Connect: Apart from connecting you to your students, Edmodo also has the power to create a network of all your colleagues. Parents and school administrators can also reach you through this mobile app. You also get to interact with other teachers worldwide, creating a list of wonderful connections to get more resources for your students.
• Measure: It is certainly time consuming to collate all your students grades. With Edmodo on your Smartphone or tablet, you can check all your students’ performance in one click. For great performance, your students will be provided award badges automatically if they excel on their quizzes and assignment. All grades and awards are stored in their secure server and only accessible if you are logged in using your ID.
• Personalize: Learning is fun with Edmodo. You can ask your students to try out various apps where they can practice their lessons in Math, Science, Spelling, English and more. These educational game apps can help you seamlessly integrate your lesson plans for the day, delivering all digital learning in one place.

Upon initial inspection, here are some spot-on features of Edmodo:

1. Fast and efficient online homework distribution and submission
2. Facebook-like interface making it easy for kids to understand the tools on the app
3. Cost-efficient for teachers and parents because it’s FREE
4. Creating classes on the app is easy
5. The grading system is simple to utilize
6. Excellent networking tool for teachers and their colleagues

Verdict:

Overall, this application is a good tool in creating a strong engagement with your students. It also makes the job easier by helping you assess each student’s performance. However, it could be a lot easier if the calendar of events syncs with Google Calendar, as well as the Google Folder or Dropbox for more file storage. In addition, as more educators prefer using this app, we expect Edmodo to be available not only for iOS devices such as the iPhone/iPads and PCs, but also for Android devices too. We would suggest to keep a conventional email for your students who don’t have iOS-powered devices. But so far, no certain application in the App Store can provide the same power and connection as Edmodo.

About the Author: Allie Cooper has an outstanding passion for mobile phones, mobile computing, music, O2 & Microsoft. Aside from blogging, she is a fan of playing football and she’s always available on Twitter.

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Thanks Allie for the comprehensive review! Edmodo has many features that teachers will like. I am currently using it with my Grade 5s (the oldest students at my campus). The Middle and High School teachers use Edmodo with all their students, so at my campus, the fifth graders are introduced to it and use it to keep up with their homework and projects. I will give my impressions on Edmodo, and its iPad/iPhone app in a future post.

How have you been using Edmodo with your classes? Do your students enjoy the Facebook-like interface? What are some of the shortcomings of Edmodo? Please let us know in the comments!