Thing #23 - Ning

Visit 23 Thingsters


I joined our "MISD 23 Thing" on Ning, and that was fun to actually put a face to some of the people in this class! This social network would be good for students. I think my Facebook and Myspace accounts need to stay on a personal level, but if I chose to create a social network for my students Ning seems like a great place to start. Although I think a class wiki would be just as sufficient because of the discussion tab.

When I was exploring the Ning networks I found Mr. Bergmann's wiki and WOW - he is pretty much awesome! I can just tell from his pics! haha I bookmarked this because when I finally sit down and get a class wiki and page started this is what I want to shoot for! And omg - his classes just look so hands-on. I would love to sit in and observe him teaching.

I felt a little overwhelmed when I visited Classroom 2.0, but the "groups" tab was nice because I was able to narrow down my search.

Overall, I think there are social networks for your personal life and social networks for your professional life and to me there should be a clear separation. I would prefer to use Ning for a social network with my students rather than Facebook or Myspace for the sheer stigma that those two networks have. But like I said earlier, I think the discussion tab on a wiki would work just fine for communication outside of school!