There are a lot of social media websites out there that I would love to rangle into the classroom. Making them work in a classroom environment, not having them blocked, and pleasing the admins is the hard part. This is exactly why I was extremely excited to stumble upon edmodo.com today. A quick glance at it and some would mistake it for Facebook. A deeper look into the features and some would call it a twitter clone. I’m in the process of checking everything out, but this is what I’ve found out thus far.

The whole thing is a lot easier to explain if you are a frequenter of Facebook and Twitter. On your initial visit you are asked to choose whether you are a teacher or student. Of course you choose teacher and go through the typical sign up. Once through you will be presented with this page.

Here you will notice the timeline similar to Facebook. Before you get to doing that you should create a group. Groups can be classes, small groups, etc and when you post items, only they will be able to see it, unless made public. Once a class is created a code is given for students to join the group. Students need only visit the site, sign up as a student, supply the given code and they are in. (Note. Students don’t need to supply email addresses.

Something you will notice above the posting bubble are several categories, leaving you plenty of options for items to send. (files, links, posts, events, assignments, etc…) When these various posts appear in the timeline students are able to store them in their locker for later retrieval.

I look to see several things added to the site. Mainly text messages to give it the complete twitter-esque feel. But for now I am very satisfied.

Here is a link to their guides. Edmodo Guides