I've found that children really like joining groups on Edmodo - probably because it makes them happy when they feel they belong to lots of different communities.
A couple of weeks ago I created a 'book reviews' group for my school in which children could write and share reviews of any books that they have enjoyed reading recently. Since then it has become very popular and nearly every day I now see a new review being added to it by a pupil - indeed, it's turning into a fantastic way of promoting and improving children's enjoyment of reading books for pleasure.
To make everyone aware of the group's presence, I asked a couple of eager children to each design a poster advertising it and explaining how it could be joined (i.e. what the group code was). This helped to put a bit of child-ownership on the project and seemed to be a great way of attracting members who would likely be more interested in promotion by a friend their age than by an adult.
In order to keep the group's message stream tidy and free from distracting 'chat', I opted to implement the new 'moderate posts' setting in Edmodo. This means that all messages sent to the group are held for moderation by the owner (in this case me) before they appear. Any new reviews/replies that aren't good enough quality I simply delete before others get the chance to read them.
To encourage good review writing, however, I ensured that the first message posted to the group contained my expectations and success criteria for what features should be included and I also created a badge to reward to those who successfully follow them.
Have you created any interesting groups on Edmodo for encouraging online learning?
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