ISTE Notes

These notes are listed on Frank Catalano’s Intrinsic Marketing strategy blog, so you can go there to get the full gist. I am posting the parts that are relevant to our main interests at edReformer. Below, his comments on social networking companies in education.

Dedicated social networks for students (and educators) were a mini-trend at ISTE, with at least three companies showing new products or new features. These were in addition to Pearson’s announcement just before the start of ISTE that it would underwrite educator communities on the general-purpose social network Ning (news release, http://bit.ly/dbwp68). Perhaps not unexpectedly, the education-specific social networks have Facebook-like looks and feels.

Edmodo launched in September 2008 as a social learning network and has a free edition for teachers and students. New at ISTE was an iPod application and an Android app will be added this fall. Edmodo features education applications and a library of educational content populated by teachers which they can share with each other; content partners will be announced by this fall. Edmodo says more than 20% of their users visit every day.

Schoology, founded in May 2009, also has free editions for teachers and students. It was highlighting its difference at ISTE: a Web-based learning management system built under, and into, the social networking platform.

Th(i)nqEd was the newest entrant with its Journ(i)e student-centered learning social network. Th(i)nqEd used ISTE not just to launch Journ(i)e, but to announce the company name change from SchoolCenter to Th(i)nqEd (Mary McCaffrey, formerly of Pearson and Apple’s PowerSchool, has been CEO since July 2009). Journ(i)e has iPhone and Android apps, as well as a full set of social network features including threaded messaging, blogs, feeds, wikis and workspaces for projects and groups. It likely will also give spell-checkers fits.

Not on the show floor were teacher-focused social networks where educators alone mingle, such as edWeb.net, TeachAde.com and WeAreTeachers.com, apparently ceding the spotlight this ISTE to social networks where students and teachers both participate.