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Edmodo Opens Platform to Developers, Announces Store and Exchange

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 03/06/12

Edmodo , an education social networking site that provides learning management system functions and allows online communication among teachers, students, and parents, is opening up its platform to ease the effort of integration with other programs. The company announced that it is releasing its application programming interface (API) to other developers to enable them to create education applications that run on the Edmodo platform and that exploit Edmodo features such as badges, assignments, and quizzes.

The initial launch features 35 companies that have developed stand-alone applications that will shortly leverage the API. The list includes SchoolTube, a video site for students and teachers; Socrative, a classroom response system; BrainNook, an online gaming system for math and English; Desmos, which has a graphing calculator; FlatStanley, a pen pal site that connects students and classes with others around the world; and Mathalicious, which provides lessons for teaching "real-world" math.

Both free and paid applications will be made available through an online store that is scheduled to open in time for the 2012-2013 school year. According to coverage by Fast Company, Edmodo will take a 15 percent cut of sales. The company claims 6 million users in 70,000 schools.

Edmodo has also announced that it will be setting up a "Teacher-Developer Exchange" to connect the two groups and facilitate sharing of ideas for new products.

"Teachers know what works in the classroom--they're inventing new ways to connect with students every day," said Nic Borg, Edmodo's CEO and co-founder. "By bridging the expertise of great classroom teachers with developers who can create the tools that educators are seeking and conceiving, we think the possibilities are boundless."