We had a number of goals when we launched Edmodo: we wanted to provide schools with a safe and secure way to integrate social networking into classroom curriculum; we wanted Edmodo to evolve organically, based on feedback from educators; and we were committed to providing this service for free.   In a nutshell, we had our work cut out for us.

Looking back on 2010, we’re pleased with how far we’ve come in our quest to achieve these goals.  Edmodo just exceeded 1 million registered users in over 17,000 schools. We launched a number of new features based on your input, including: subject and publisher communities; a dynamic and growing library that facilitates exchange of digital content and user-created materials; the ability to differentiate instruction through the creation of small groups within a classroom; expanded calendar features; improvements to our online gradebook and assignment manager; the Help Center powered by the Edmodo community; and a wide array of tweaks and enhancements based on your experiences using Edmodo in your classrooms.

In addition, we have a number of new features currently in beta release that haven’t even been announced — stay tuned early next year for the wider release of Parent Accounts, which will allow parents to become active participants in the classroom through the ability to view grades, exchange messages with you and their child, and track school events and activities through a calendar that can be color-coded and filtered for each child in the family.

But what we’re most proud of is that Edmodo is and always will be free.

As you can imagine, launching a free service has required the backing of some very unique supporters – financial investors who understand the intricacies of the education landscape as it is today but have the vision to see the potential of social networking to fundamentally transform education on a global level.

Learn Capital was our founding investor and today we’re pleased to announce that Union Square Ventures (USV) has joined our team to help us achieve our goal of providing free, secure social networking tools to schools all over the world.   Union Square Ventures is an investment firm with a track record for supporting young companies that use technology in innovative ways — you may recognize USV from their early investments in Twitter, Zynga, Foursquare and Etsy; we know them as a valued partner who truly believes in the power of technology and mobile learning to engage students and inspire them to reach their potential.

Through our partnerships with Learn Capital and Union Square Ventures and our continued collaboration with you, our dedicated community of educators, it’s clear that it’s time to reset our goals and look far beyond our wildest dreams for what we can achieve together.  We can’t wait to see what the coming year brings.

So let’s get started.

photo courtesy of Michael McCollum/The Record

The teachers and administrators at Lodi Unified School District face many of the same problems that most of you have likely faced when it comes to using technology in the classroom:  concerns about how to pay for it, ensuring all students have equal access, old computers, slow internet connections.   (Sound familiar?)

As this article demonstrates, however, these challenges were no match for their overwhelming commitment to transforming their schools into a 21^st century learning space  – an anytime/anywhere learning environment that encourages using the internet and cell phones to meet students where they are ready to learn.  The teachers at Christa McAuliffe Middle School pushed through their perceived challenges and have created an atmosphere of collaboration and innovation that will undoubtedly impact students for the rest of their lives.

We love hearing about forward thinking school districts like Lodi Unified and are very proud to be part of their solution. Congratulations to everyone at Lodi Unified School District – and especially Martha Snider and her class at Christa McAuliffe Middle School in Stockton.

Now let’s hear from you – how have you overcome “challenges” to create a 21^st century learning environment of your own?

Luckily those days are behind us (well…they should be at least;).  Today, a happy class is an engaged class.  Finding ways to capture student attention and motivate them to want to learn more is the key to learning.

To help you in this area, we are declaring Show and Tell Friday (huzzah!).  Each Friday, we’ll highlight a web 2.0 tool, technology, or really cool idea that we’re seeing teachers using in Edmodo to engage students at all grades and learning levels.

Pixton Comics for Schools is a great way to start.   Pixton allows students to create interactive comics to demonstrate their understanding of a concept or idea.  We’re seeing a lot of Pixton projects posted to Edmodo across all subject areas and it seems to be a great tool for all disciplines.  Students can write book reports for Language Arts, create a timeline of events for Social Studies, or create a math riddle to be solved by other students — all using the features provided in Pixton.    (It gets even better! There’s an Edmodo button so you can post completed comics directly to the Edmodo library)

Ok – so now we’ve “Shown” – it’s time for you to “Tell”:  Have you tried Pixton yet in your classroom?   What do you think?

Tools mentioned in the report include Twitter, Skype, and Edmodo, a private micro-blogging platform that gives teachers and students a sheltered place to manage classroom assignments and activities as well as engage in protected conversations.

2009 Horizon Report K-12 Edition.

Each edition of the Horizon Report is released with a Creative Commons License and may be freely replicated and distributed for noncommercial purposes provided that each is distributed only in its entirety.

Enter Creative Commons:
“Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright licenses known as Creative Commons licenses. These licenses allow creators to communicate which rights they reserve, and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators.” Wikipedia

Hopefully the following video and document will help explain to you what Creative Commons is why you should use and license the works you create on the web with a Creative Commons License.

creativecommons-sharing-creative-works_eng

Using & creating Creative Commons Licensed material in the classroom will allow you and your students to use, remix, share, and ultimately learn from using and publishing other Creative Commons content.

Resources:
http://creativecommons.org/
Search for Creative Commons Licensed Work
License Your work under Creative Commons
Wikipedia Article

• http://www.boxoftricks.net/?p=432 – What students think of Edmodo
  
• http://mashable.com/2008/09/18/edmodo/
• http://www.boxoftricks.net/?p=403
• http://academhack.outsidethetext.com/home/2008/edmodo-twitter-for-educators/
• http://www.openeducation.net/2008/09/20/edmodo-free-microblogging-site-for-educators/
• http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/digital_passports/2008/09/05/edmodo-twitter-designed-for-the-classroom/
• http://www.blogher.com/edmodo-microblogging-classroom

We have been really humbled by the support that people have given to Edmodo and thank everyone that has taken the time to sign up and write about Edmodo.  We also want to thank every teacher using Edmodo in their classroom.  Edmodo is an attempt to give teachers & students a better communication tool that makes their lives easier, so keep the feedback coming!