Edmodo

Summary

Edmodo was an educational technology platform for K-12 schools and teachers. Edmodo enabled teachers to share content, distribute quizzes and assignments, and manage communication with students, colleagues, and parents. It was shut down on September 22, 2022.[2]

Edmodo
Screenshot of the Edmodo app running on an iPad
Type of businessSubsidiary
Type of site
Social learning network, Social learning tools, Networked learning
Available inArabic, English, Croatian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Greek, French, Italian, Turkish, Dutch, Chinese, Swedish, Indonesian
FoundedSeptember 1, 2008; 15 years ago (2008-09-01)
DissolvedSeptember 22, 2022; 18 months ago (September 22, 2022)
HeadquartersSan Mateo, California
Area servedWorldwide
Created byNic Borg, Jeff O'Hara, Crystal Hutter
IndustryEducation
ServicesEducation technology
ParentNetDragon
RegistrationRequired
Users87.4 million[1]
Current statusDiscontinued

History edit

Edmodo.id was found by Nick Borg, Ed O'Neil, Jeff O'Hara, and Crystal Hutter in 2008.[3][4] It was backed by Index Ventures, Benchmark, Greylock Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Union Square Ventures, Tenaya Capital, SingTel, and KDDI.[5]

In 2013, Edmodo.id was included in the list of "The Top Apps for teachers" by PC Magazine.[6] The same year, Edmodo launched a startup, Root-1, in an effort to establish itself as the app store for education.[7][8] Vibhu Mittal, co-founder and CEO of Root-1, became the CEO of Edmodo the following year.[9]

In 2014, Edmodo launched Snapshot – a suite of assessment tools to measure student progress on educational standards.[10] The company also partnered with Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press to provide access to educational content on the Edmodo Platform[11] and bring Edmodo Snapshot to the UK.[12]

In January 2017, Edmodo launched professional development courses for teachers in the state of New York in conjunction with NYPTI. These included both a synchronous video classroom component as well as an asynchronous, text based discussion component.[citation needed]

On May 17, 2017, Edmodo sent an email informing users that it was the victim of a major hack of user information. Some 77 million users' data were breached: this included the username, hashed password and email address (in a subset of the cases, since not all users need an email address to register). Since passwords were both hashed and salted (encrypted) using the bcrypt algorithm,[13][14] the effort to decrypt all the passwords would have been very large. There were no reports of any school data being affected, nor any identities compromised, according to an external audit commissioned by the company.[citation needed]

In June 2017, Edmodo announced Ask Mo, an educational video search engine. Ask Mo's search algorithm is based on videos that had been shared by teachers in the context of educational discussions and can be filtered by subject and grade level.[citation needed]

On April 8, 2018, Edmodo announced that it was being acquired by NetDragon for $137.5 million in cash and stock.[15][non-primary source needed]

In July 2019, Edmodo claimed to have over 100 million users worldwide.[16]

On August 15, 2022, Edmodo announced that the platform would be closed on September 22, 2022.[17]

Criticisms edit

The Federal Trade Commission on May 22, 2023 sued Edmodo, LLC for violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act by collecting data on children without parental consent and "for unlawfully outsourcing its COPPA compliance responsibilities to schools."[18][19] A penalty fine of $6 million USD was imposed, but would only have to be paid if Edmodo continued business in the United States.[20] On June 28, 2023, in conjunction with the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California, the FTC laid a permanent injunction on Edmodo, LLC. to not violate COPPA rulings, prevent the collection of any more data than was necessary, and to delete all data collected from students under 13 years of age. [21][22]

References edit

  1. ^ https://www.edmodo.com/about[permanent dead link]
  2. ^ "Popular K-12 Tool Edmodo Shuts Down - EdSurge News". EdSurge. August 16, 2022. Retrieved December 9, 2022.
  3. ^ "Edmodo, Microblogging Platform for Educators, Merges with Revolution r4r4r4r4d4fLearning's Fusion Project". PR Newswire. February 10, 2010.
  4. ^ "Edmodo Free Microblogging Site for Educators". Open Education. September 20, 2008. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015.
  5. ^ Wan, Tony (August 6, 2014). "Edmodo Raises $30M Round Led by Index Ventures". EdSurge.
  6. ^ "Back to School: The Top Apps for Teach ldvm jh oPAskojyoers". Fast Company. August 21, 2013.
  7. ^ Empson, Rip (March 6, 2013). "Now 18M Users Strong, Edmodo Makes Its First Acquisition In Root-1 To Become The App Market For Education". TechCrunch.
  8. ^ "Edmodo Acquires Root-1". TechCrunch. March 5, 2013.
  9. ^ Wan, Tony (December 22, 2014). "EXCLUSIVE: Edmodo Turns to Its Roots for a New CEO". EdSurge.
  10. ^ "Bringing innovation to our educational systems". Index Ventures. July 14, 2014.
  11. ^ "Oxford University Press and Social Learning Platform Edmodo Partner to Enhance Pupil Learning". Business Wire. January 21, 2015.
  12. ^ "Cambridge UK schools team partner with Edmodo". Cambridge. January 20, 2015.
  13. ^ Masters, Greg (May 12, 2017). "Millions of identities stolen from education platform Edmodo". SC Media. Retrieved May 12, 2017.
  14. ^ Cox, Joseph (May 11, 2017). "Hacker Steals Millions of User Account Details from Education Platform Edmodo". Motherboard. Retrieved May 17, 2017.
  15. ^ "NetDragon Signs Agreement to Acquire Edmodo to Create the Largest Global Learning Community". PR Newswire. April 8, 2018. Retrieved April 8, 2018.
  16. ^ "We have connected 50 million learners!". Twitter. April 24, 2015.
  17. ^ Mangaluz, Jean (August 16, 2022). "Online education platform Edmodo to shut down in September". INQUIRER.net. Retrieved August 16, 2022.
  18. ^ "FTC Accuses Defunct Edtech Company Edmodo of Violating Kids' Privacy". May 23, 2023.
  19. ^ "FTC Says ed Tech Provider Edmodo Unlawfully Used Children's Personal Information for Advertising and Outsourced Compliance to School Districts". May 22, 2023.
  20. ^ "Oh no, you don't, Edmodo: FTC sues ed tech company for violating school kids' privacy". May 21, 2023.
  21. ^ "Northern District of California | Permanent Injunction Imposed on Online Education Platform Company Edmodo, LLC for Alleged Violations of Children's Privacy Law | United States Department of Justice". June 28, 2023.
  22. ^ "San Mateo Firm Permanently Barred from Using Its Online System, Admits Harvesting Data About 36M Children". June 30, 2023.