Social learning network Edmodo made a couple of exciting announcements today. In addition to touting all the new features it's rolled out recently, the company says it has exceeded 1 million registered users in over 17,000 schools.
Edmodo is a free social network for schools, teachers, and students that provides a secure platform for communication. Assignments, photos, videos, links, blogs, and updates can all be shared via the site.
The company also announced today that it's received investment from one of the leading investment firms in the country, Union Square Ventures - early investors in Twitter, Foursquare, and Etsy.
Union Square Ventures partner Albert Wenger wrote a blog post about the investment today, noting the firm's commitment to "hack education" (which, of course, I love). Wenger pointed to 3 things that interest the firm in terms of investment opportunities in education and Internet technologies:
- educational content in "micro-chunks"
- decentralized decision-making
- mobile learning
Wenger says that Edmodo shares these beliefs as it offers a way for students and teachers to easily share content - with an emphasis on both the social and the mobile experience.