In terms of affordances, Edmodo can be easily accessed by the learners,  the learners, especially in Universities have internet enabled mobile phones and personal laptops were they can easily install it and open up an account at no cost, the learning platform accommodates a flexible learning environment from anywhere and this  enables learners voice their opinions, collaborate within and outside the university, students are actively engaged and practice views of responsible learning, they employ a variety of learning styles, repeat and reinforce learning.  It’s an authentic teaching strategy that should be employed by more Educators hoping to encourage student-centered technology driven learning environment. Therefore incorporating Edmodo in the teaching learning process encourages both student engagement and responsible learning when particular Edmodo features are employed. The learners find Edmodo a wonderful and user-friendly social learning platform.

According to Vygotsky (1999) mental processes can be understood only if we understand the tools and signs that mediate them. Edmodo as a mediating tool plays a central role in mental development of the 21st Century learners in high institutions of learning, it’s the means by which peers and the more knowledgeable peers transmit information, and the learning platform is a powerful tool of Cognitive development. The use of Edmodo as a mediation tool in high institutions of learning helps learners move into and through their Zone of proximate development (ZPD). Mediation provides insight in the learner’s future cognitive development in understanding artifacts, Vygotsky stated that consciousness is constructed through a subject's interactions with the world. We can only understand mental processes if we understand the social interaction and tools and signs that mediate them.

The introduction of ePortfolios in education provides students with the opportunity to use authentic evidence to document their achievement and skills that can be used for multiple purposes. The objective or potential audience of the ePortfolio will determine how it will be designed. In some universities and countries, they have created storage capacity to accommodate student’s ePortfolios. These ePortfolios are retained in the university system as a personal space for learning and personal development for the students over a period of time.    

It is worth noting that ePortfolios are not just a documentary evidence of the student’s competence but can be compiled as assessment and as learning. They potentially act as mediators in teaching and learning, they can be used to capture an individual’s perception based on the learning experiences in a particular course overtime. Furthermore, they help students to actively reflect on their learning and they are able to trace their development in the course over time. As a visual media, it provides an avenue to display and share a person’s competency with their educators, peers and others in and out of their activity system of education.  The use of ePortfolios in as a mediating tool in high Institutions of learning provides an alternative of digitizing student’s works for better performance.

 

The ePortfolios process starts with students first collecting the needed images from their visual records. They then reflect upon their work and organize it in presentable formats using the Google Site App. They obtain feedback from their instructors which helps them in revising their ePortfolio as learning and for assessment. They complete the design of their portfolios to be submitted later in the virtual classroom space. This process encourages socialization with other peers in the virtual classroom environment.  

Such devices are making a profound impact in university settings worldwide, both inside and outside of the classroom. Despite this, laptop and tablet initiatives are still relatively novel across a range of higher education institutions. Using laptops in the lecture theatre increases engagement between the lecturer and the class, using laptop in class enhances student centered and critical thinking through accessing then e- resources. Laptops follow students through various learning spaces and could be considered a learning space themselves, not only because of the flexibility they offer, but also because they carry with them all students’ digital learning content. Laptops are recreational spaces, they are mobile device that facilitate interactions they challenge traditional learning spaces and influences educational practice.

This development seems to relate to mobility in terms of contextual aspects of conceptual space, physical space, social space, technology, and time. In the University setting students’ use of mobile devices and cloud-based technologies while working together on an assignment. Mobile collaboration in this call includes physical co-locations as well as collaborators being separated in time and place. High institutions of learning need  to avail suchopportunities to Use, observe, evaluate and support collaborative learning activities in everyday informal and formal educational settings  by effectively utilizing the emerging Technological tools and devices for effective teaching and learning