Nings are a great way for educators to network with other educators. After spending some time on a couple of Nings, what is your impression of them? Can you see yourself continuing to use them as resource? What were some things you liked and didn't like about this type of social network?
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
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Nings would be a great tool for keeping up technology and ways to implement it in the schools. I especially liked Web.2.0, the tutorial apps and the videos, which would be very helpful in teaching others to use the different tools
ReplyDeleteAfter spending some time on the Educators PLN and watching the video on how to create Nings for your students, I feel like this may be a tool that doesn't get used a whole lot. To begin with, it seems like a LOT of work to get a ning set up when compared to some of the other tools that you've shown us on our journey through this class. Many of the others are fast and simple little tools that don't take up a lot of time.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that I noticed while looking through the Educators PLN was that there wasn't a lot of information that was very recent. Most of the information and posts and comments that I found were from 2011 and back. That to me says that many of the educators from this ning have found a place to better utilize their time and knowledge.
I do think that Nings have their place and I hope that there are educators that will take the time to set one up and use it in their classroom, but I don't see myself taking that kind of time or many of my students using it if I did.
One of the things that I did like was the ability to post so many different ways in one place. There were forums and videos and chats and all of that. There are plenty of places for a student to find their "place" so to speak in the classroom.
Classroom Nings can be fabulous, but they are not as popular as they used to be. They don't take nearly as much time to set up as it might appear. It is all a customized template so it just takes a few minutes. Sometimes schools set up Nings to help manage school groups. Individual teachers can set up Nings where they can manage individual classes. Unless students have a reason to go there they aren't terribly likely to utilize it.
DeleteNings such as the Classroom 2.0 and Educators PLN have thousands of members. Some of them are active while others are not. Some of the conversations might be old, but they are still very relevant. Many of the conversations that are happening right now on Twitter, blogs, and other spaces are the same conversations that have been happening for years.
I always suggest Nings as a good place for educators who are not comfortable on other networks such as Twitter. It is very easy to find like-minded people and conversations that already are happening around specific topics.
I am going to have to prioritize all this new technology knowledge. I have so many new things I want to try in the classroom. I would love to set this up so it is a way to share information with parents. Late in the year my teammate was going to try to share the things we are learning about through a student comment a day via twitter. I think this might be a better forum for this kind of sharing. It seems to be very user friendly and I look forward to sharing this site with my teammates!
ReplyDeleteSarah-
DeleteFor sharing information with parents I highly recommend a blog. You can insert a Twitter widget in the blog so parents can see everything in one place.
My first thought as I was reading was that this would be so much better than making a facebook page for my students. My reasoning - in order to have a facebook account the user is supposed to be at least 13. Now I know that half my class last year were already members despite this fact. But as an educator and mother I do not want to encourage my students to bypass the age thing. I also like being able to control who becomes a member.
ReplyDeleteI feel that the Nings are just a combination of forums, and Facebook/Myspace.
ReplyDeleteI really don't see my self using these in the classroom. I think I would be more apt to use a blogs for my students to connect and share information.
I like the Educators PLN Ning. I think it will be a valuable resource for me. The blog by Thomas Whitby, Teachers are Poor Consumers of Learning was helpful. He stated that there is a volume of information and to not be discouraged but be inspired by what is attainable. You have to learn what needs to be learned first.
ReplyDeleteMy students are able to access a lot of information and one of the tools I can teach them is how to manage all this information and how to use it. I plan on using a class blog with students first and use Nings after they are familiar with blogging.
Nings are just another Facebook. I do like the idea that I have this set of friends at this ning and another group of friends at that ning. This is a feature I’ve sometimes wanted in Facebook. I wouldn’t mind sharing this, but I don’t want everyone or even one person to know this. I don’t think I will be utilizing them as a resource. It becomes just one more Website to visit and log into. I can see where they could be useful in the classroom. I won’t friend students on Facebook, but you could still have that social interaction with a ning. I also think that you could accomplish the same thing with a class blog, although a blog would be public.
ReplyDeleteI can see it as great source of information from other educators. The format is similar to Facebook, which the students might find it more in their realm of social networking and might use it more. I’ll have to talk to our Tech person to if it’s unfiltered so the students can use it. I just want to show my students all of these great tools that are available for them and see which tools that they would use on a daily basis
ReplyDelete