That incident was also an accident, according to Edmodo CEO Vibhu Mittal. In September, between 1,000 and 2,000 Edmodo users opened the app to see an ad that asked, “What is the first time you tried an e-cig?” The two possible answers-“8th grade and above” and “8th grade and below”-overlay a stock image of a young person exhaling a billowing cloud of smoke from his mouth.
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What’s more, these incidents underscore a troubling problem that is not unique to Edmodo: As edtech companies that once offered their services for free search for revenue models, the stops and stumbles that can follow often come at students’ expense. They acted quickly to take it down-but it’s not the only advertising misstep the company has made in recent months.
That the ad ever showed up on a student’s account was a mistake, Edmodo officials say. You can do better, right? /zcofhwh06M- Beth Freeman August 16, 2018 “I thought, ‘I’m not gonna freak out.’ … But it was so usually things don’t bother me but this is the ad that popped up in my 8th grade son’s social studies feed today. “I was like, ‘Clearly there’s a glitch,’” says Freeman, whose son attends school in Cobb County School District in Atlanta. On it was the unmistakable image of a glass of beer. The advertisement appeared on Edmodo’s mobile app, which Freeman’s son uses daily for updates about homework, quizzes and other school assignments. She usually looks right past them.īut then, in August, she saw something that unsettled her. Most of the ads seem innocuous-a virtual charter school or a set of digital worksheets, for example-and don’t bother her much. Over the last year, she’s noticed ads peppered throughout the communications app, which is used by most students, parents and teachers at her 13-year-old’s middle school. Beth Freeman logs in to her son’s Edmodo account from time to time to check on his homework assignments.