Pownce X Edmodo

I´ve already written about Pownce and how I loved the possibility of easily sharing files with a group of people but after I got the message that Pownce would be closing I decided to give http://edmodo.com a try. Carla Arena was the first one who talked to me about it as she used it with a group of teachers during a course.

These are some of the features which I found in common with Pownce and some differences as well.
*Both in pownce and edmodo you can easily share files (pictures, songs, videos, links, documents) with a group of people or with an individual. An advantage edmodo has is the possibility to share any application which has an embed code, like the examples below.















sharing a slide show sharing a video sharing a voicethread



*Both offer you the possibility of creating groups to aggregate the people you want to share with. If you are the creator of the group (instructor) you get a code you give to the people you invite to join the group. The code feature makes edmodo much safer than Pownce, in the sense that you have the control with whom your students will be in contact with. As the manager of the group you also have the power to select the messages you find adequate for the group (clicking in public). Another positive point is the possiblility of filtering the incoming messages by groups or reading all the messages together. Something I miss in edmodo is the possibility of filtering the messages per person by just clicking on their picture as I could do in Pownce.


Great advantages for using edmodo with students:
- you can have a quick channel of communication with your students.
- language students will have plenty of writing and reading practise using the tool.
- you can send assignments to the group and grade them.
- you can send alerts.
- you can share a course calendar with the group.
- you can put your students in contact with other groups to develop joint projects.

Another thing I miss in edmodo is the impossibility to customize my layout, but nothing is perfect, right? I´ll definitely use edmodo with my groups next term.

This is a tutorial Carla Arena has made about edmodo

TUTORIAL