User+Reviews

__**Edmodo User Review**__: Teachers have a new alternative to the clunky BlackBoard system with this social networking education app for Android and iPhone.

If you’re an educator, by now you’ve probably encountered “The Facebook Problem.” Do you delete your account? Change your privacy settings? Change your name? Perhaps you’ve decided you have nothing to hide from your students or their parents and have embraced social networking with open arms. Either way, social networking is a new, often uncomfortable reality of teacher and student interaction. Edmodo presents an interesting alternative to that potential education quagmire. It’s an education and social app for Android and iPhone, and it allows teachers and students to connect and interact. Though it operates much like Facebook and Twitter, it’s much more about the network than the social aspects. Edmodo keeps the focus on education and provides an effective platform tool for teachers.After a quick profile setup, users can create groups (say, different classes or a department of teachers) that other users can join. Teachers can post messages to specific groups or students, and students can send messages back. With Edmodo, teachers can meet students to discuss schoolwork outside of the physical classroom—in a digital place students tend to tread more often. Edmodo also has some useful organizational features, such as a simple grade book and a library to store and post assignments and files. Overall, it probably could stand to be a little more robust. A calendar would be a great addition, as would push notifications. If you’re receiving messages from over 100 students, checking your phone every few minutes can be a bit overwhelming. This school app doesn’t come with any promises of improved grades or a higher approval rating from the classroom, but it does offer an innovative way to reach your students. For that reason, it’s worth checking out.

Reviewed: Dec 14, 2011 | [|Nick Hurwitch]

3/5 Stars
This app is included in a scenario called [|4 Best Education Apps of 2011] 3/5 Stars 3.5/5 Stars 4.0/5 Stars
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 * Android Marketplace:

Edmodo provides a safe and easy way for your class to connect and collaborate, share content, and access homework, grades and school notices. Our goal is to help educators harness the power of social media to customize the classroom for each and every learner. Product Added By rksalerno Added On January 18, 2012 User review: 4 out of 5 stars
 * Edmodo  **

Couldn't Live Without It!
**THE GOOD:** > I love this product. Edmodo allows me to post assignments to students. I can attach guidelines, rubric, basically anything I want to the assignment. You can also create surveys and quizzes. Students can submit their work to the assignments, it is graded and recorded right in Edmodo. **THE BAD:** > I can't think of anything I dislike about this product.

> [|JeanetteS] > Jan 25,2012 > It's nice because all of my students have iPads, and they have this app downloaded. So they can just go to this app and access anything I want them to see. I've shown them videos and pdf's. I've had them take quizzes on it. You can even upload your Glogs that you create in Glogster. > No complaints. > I use it as the class homepage. If I want to post class information, this is a great tool. It's very similar to having a class blog, which we also have, except this is really a one-stop shop. You can do most everything from this spot.
 * REVIEWED BY:
 * User's Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
 * Helps With Paperless Teaching
 * THE GOOD:**
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 * REVIEWED BY :[|Chris Mattox] Jan 26,2012

__**U Khan Academy User Review:**__


 * **Pros**: Phenomenal content. Free. Great search function. Covers wide range of subjects to learn. Records progress.
 * **Cons:** Hard to sift through content from homepage. Drill-down needed for finding content. All videos are hosted on YouTube; can't watch where YouTube is blocked.
 * **Bottom Line**: Khan Academy, a site for learning academic and real-world knowledge from tutorial videos, is an example of content conquering all. Despite exhibiting a few growing pains in its recent expansion of material, this impressive educational sites is free and open to everyone.

Khan Academy is a site that everyone who is interested in elearning should should visit at least once. In terms of its importance in the digital world, it shows potential to match Wikipedia. As a place where you can learn, or simply refresh your learning, in dozens of subjects, from algebra to economics to art history, I's easily one of the most useful, educational, and eye-opening places online to learn. And everything is free.

Khan Academy is an example of content conquering all. The video that teach the subject matter aren't flashy, don't use musical interludes, and aren't voiced by actors. The instruction is genuine, straightforward, and presented in a style that makes you feel like someone cares whether you get it.

=== [|View Slideshow] [|See all **(7)** slides] ===


 * The History of Khan**

Khan Academy started when a former hedge fund analyst, Sal Khan, began tutoring his cousins, who lived in different cities, in mathematics using Yahoo Doodle and a telephone. Tight on time and with other scheduling concerns, the MIT-educated Khan began recording screencasts of his help sessions so he could post them to YouTube, where his cousin could watch them at their own pace. Before long, other YouTube viewers were watching the videos, too, praising the material for finally helping them understand a concept they had been struggling to learn. Sal Khan told this story at a TED conference in early 2011, which has since led to increased recognition of his online Academy.

Now with around 20 employees, non-profit institution Khan Academy has been expanding to offer more videos, additional learning content—such as practice exercises and learning "coaches"—and several other features.

The site needs a little more work in terms of structure, as the home page scrolls tirelessly through a long list of possible things to learn, grouped loosely by subject: seismic waves, inflation, the French Revolution, a 15-part series explaining the Paulson Bailout, and so on.
 * What's Taught and What Isn't**

Khan Academy focuses on academic fields, for the most part, aimed at upper grade school and college-level students. But the beauty of free online learning is that anyone can attempt to learn, and indeed nothing restricts a user of any age or background from working through any of the material.

The site also covers what I would call "real life" subjects with an academic bent. For example, one set of videos explains the 2007 collapse of the U.S. housing market bubble. Another covers the ins and outs of mortgage-backed securities. But even this material is rooted in economics and mathematics. What you won't find are how-to lessons for learning things like setting up a blog (although you can find answers to that question and other similar ones on another site called [|Grovo]).

Anyone can use Khan Academy, and you don't even have to sign up, although there are some benefits to creating a username and password. For starters, the site will remember which videos you've watched. Additionally, it can point you toward practice exercises that test your knowledge of things you've learned.
 * Features**

Enrolled users can also access a "coaching" feature. Coaches are guides for learners, whether a parent, teacher, tutor, or study buddy. A coach can see a learner's progress and suggest other lessons the learner should watch. Coaches and learners must mutually agree to the relationship, so there's no worry that some unknown person will be able to see what you're learning.

Another relatively new feature is goal-setting. Both learners and coaches can set up goals for a learner, such as watch five consecutive videos, although the feature is new and I had a hard time figuring out just how to use it effectively. If you create a goal, the default is to complete any five videos or exercises; to name the specific material you want to cover, you have to create a "custom goal." The feature still needs a little work so that users can set goals for themselves with greater ease.

Non-native English speakers and hard-of-hearing or deaf learners will be happy to know that you can turn on subtitles with one click. And Khan Academy has been working on translating its content into ten of the most popular languages worldwide: Arabic, Bengali, French, German, Hindi-Urdu, Indonesian, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

What makes video-based learning unique is that the learner can go at his or her own pace, re-watch videos or pause them to think through an idea, and fit it when it's most convenient. Khan Academy just gets it, keeping the actual videos frills-free and the material approachable. If you are a student, parent, or just a life-long learner, Khan Academy will become a household name. The site has been expanding rapidly, so a few growing pains are evident, particularly in terms of organizing the content to be searchable in different ways (i.e., drill-down method). The Goals feature could stand some improvement, too. But Khan's content is phenomenal, and //that// is what ultimately matters.
 * Effective Online Learning**



4.0/5 Stars