What is the difference between Edmodo and Symbaloo EDU?

First,, I want to give credit to Chuncoo. I am inspired by his comparison of Edmodo and Symbaloo EDU. Check his blog out. https://hescholarintraining.wordpress.com/2015/07/23/web-2-0-tools-of-the-week-720-726/

 After watching the videos about Symbaloo EDU and exploring the two tools, I find these tools share the similarity and difference. They have in common that they all aim at offering a platform for teachers and students to connect with each other outside of classroom by sharing resources, leaving comments, and the like. But the difference is bigger.

Edmodo is like an open blackboard for serving education. After the teacher creates a group for a class, there are automatically functions including note, assignment, quiz and poll. Teachers can easily communicate with students by leaving a note, invite a poll, and create all kinds of quiz. They can check students’ progress all the time, and give student badges. I think digital badges is one feature for this Edmodo. The open feature for Edmodo is mainly embodied by the search function. Teachers can search for posts, groups, apps and more in this website, which is powerful. Even though it is an open blackboard, I do not think it is much better than Blackboard. It’s just my opinion. When I search for “facebook”, results did not include the facebook webpage for me. All results were other teachers’ username. So I think this Edmodo is not open as Symbaloo EDU.

 Symbaloo EDU is also serving education, which is more like a webmix. After teachers create a Symbaloo EDU account, all websites related to education pop up on the screen including PBS, Edmodo, KHAN academy. I especially like EDU news, which is useful. Teachers are welcome to add more webmix to their account and share with their students. Emphasizing on knowledge sharing in the symbaloo is the powerful feature. After teachers share a webmix, students can communicate with teachers inside a webmix including facebook, twitter, email or other tools.

 Based on the above, I prefer Symbaloo EDU, which shows the power of web 2.0 tools in knowledge sharing, and social networking.

 Your feedback is so welcome. I cannot think more about the differences between them. Look forward to your thoughts.