What the heck is a Ning?
A Ning is a social network that "...empowers people to create and discover new social experiences for the most important people and interests in their lives. Ning was started with a simple premise: when people have the freedom to create a new social experience online, uniquely customized for the most important people and interests in their lives with no effort and infinite choice, the world is a better, more colorful and certainly more interesting place in which to live." Check out www.ning.com to start your own network.
Create a discussion board where students can respond to your questions and to each other
Post assignments or link handouts
Enable each student to create a blog
Encourage students to respond to one another's posts or blogs
Link files, images, audio, and video files
Jen created this Ning for her 10th grade students - msward.ning.com
Latin teacher Alice Garrett wis using a Ning with her foreign language students - http://msgarrett.ning.com/
Ms. Nash has her Benton High School students use a Ning to explore topics in zoology at nashzoology.ning.com
Bear English is a high school English teacher using her Ning to get students talking about Romeo and Juliet
And this American Studies Ning has a lot going on!
As many education technology writers like David Warlick, Will Richardson, and others have pointed out, when students write for an authentic audience they not only grow as writers but as thinkers as well. In his book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, Will Richardson explains how the collaborative nature of Web 2.0 encourages students to "read more critically, think about that reading more analytically, and write more clearly. And, they are building relationships with peers, teachers, mentors, and professionals..." (21). In publishing their writing to the web through platforms like Ning, students "become active participants in the design of their own learning, we teach them how to be active participants in their lives and future careers" (129).
Joyce Valenza, a local librarian, has created a wonderful list of reasons why teachers and students should use Nings. Check it out on her wiki page - Top Ten Reasons for Using 2.0 in Learning. Some of the advantages of using a Ning include
Let's brainstorm this together as we talk today.
Check out this great resource produced by EduCause: 7 Things You Should Know About Nings
Suzanne posted this blog entry about using a Ning with her high school students. Check out the comments, too. Some great ideas!
Mrs. Follis offers some wonderful reflections on how she has used the blog portion of the Ning to help her students better understand Frankenstein.
Jenny Luca, a teacher in Australia, also offers her reflections on using Nings with students.
All about using technology in the classroom, check out Classroom 2.0 - http://www.classroom20.com/
Ning for Educators - http://education.ning.com/
A space just for teachers at http://teachers20.ning.com/
English teachers check out Jim Burke's English Companion Ning at http://englishcompanion.ning.com
The National Council for English Teachers Ning is at http://ncte2008.ning.com/
The Educator's PLN is a site you really must check out at http://edupln.ning.com/
And the National Writing Project's Group Book Network is worth reading at http://nwpbookgroups.ning.com/
The wiki page Social Networks in Education offers a huge list of teachers using Nings.
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