Instagram Facebook Google Classroom Edmodo

www.instagram.com www.facebook.com http://google.classroo https://go.edmodo.

m.com/ com/teachers/

Primarily Designed for No No Yes Yes

Education?
Approved by my school No Not for inschool use. Yes No
district?
Teacher oversignt? No Yes if created. Yes Yes

Pricing Free Free Free Free - 2500$/year

for the more
Age appropriateness? Limited to 13 and up Is usually fine All good advanced
All good features

Communication with parents No Yes Very Good Excellent (has

- auto updates on student? better app control)
progress/upcoming
deadlines sent by calendar

Used personally by educators Yes Yes No Yes

to share educational
information/connect with
colleagues?
 Instagram Facebook Google Classroom Edmodo

Good for teaching Not really A place to share Open ended The expensive
mathematics? interesting information option allows
and extra links. gamification
options but
reallstically that
will never fly with
my district as it's
PER SCHOOL so in
our case $60 USD
per student per year
Usability overall Excellent Excellent Very Good Very Good
Communication with Very good Excellent Excellent Unsure - looks very
teachers/ blogging/following good
private and public chats

Safety With controls in place - Pretty good Excellent - As Looks good. More
Good additional controls are research needed.
set by district - for The costly option
example not allowing has additional
integration with safety features such
CK12.org or other as keeping the SIS
outside organizations (student
which would increase information system
usability but decrease in house)
safety.
 Instagram Facebook Google Classroom Edmodo

Best Features (Pros) Fun, Easy to use, Kids are already using it. Students have It connects with
Communicates visually, Can connect easily and permission to use this! outside educators
Organizes by searchable safely in private chats. It's District approval can and students.
# (hashtags) , Connects free. not be overestimated. Seems to have the
with the bigger world, Student emails are best features of
can follow or unfollow integrated, can set up google classroom
friends and celebrities. multiple teachers and and twitter in one
parents for auto place. (Even with
notifications/can team the free option)
teach.) connecting our
students to the
bigger world.
Worst Features (Cons) Not targetted for Can't be used to share Smacks of school not It's American so
education. Very private information such fun, kids are not districts are unlikely
distracting with all of as grades etc inspired to play with to approve it due to
the feeds coming in all this tool. Even when privacy rules. Have
of the time. Can't be you have blogs they are very similar
used to share private not that interactive and features that
information such as kids can't usually create combining other
grades etc their own so it's very tools can give you.
teacher top down.
Paragraph Summation: Honestly, the district approval is critical. It was fascinating to see Edmodo however as it's got the best
features of Instagram (or Twitter) and Google Classroom rolled into one package including the teacher controlled pieces but
realistically it is not district approved, this continues to be a barrier but as a colleague of mine likes to point out we are not in
private practice. To use either Instagram or Facebook as a student centred tool in the classroom would be challenging with the
policies in place, I know some districts are using it but with the only option being to 'unfollow' which would be rude to our
students the amount of spam, frankly I'm not sure how to wade through that. So in the end I would honestly only use Google
Classroom though after seeing Edmodo I am slightly less excited about it as I was before.