Questions about Using a Ning

[Lisa Huff]

The ning is new to me. I'm struggling to make sense of it, to understand how it should/can mesh with other digital tools I and my students are currently using. Here are a few questions I'm grappling with and would love to hear your ideas:

• Have any other teachers used it for literature circle/book club discussions? How did you set up circles--by books, by small groups? Did you allow students to create groups, or did you--the administrator--create the grouops?
• How does this mesh with my existing class wiki and individual student blogs? This has a blog feature integrated, but it isn't as powerful as their edublogs--not nearly the capabilities and features. Should we use this blog to highlight posts from their individual blog?
• Back to book discussions: Each of my students will create an account at Goodreads where they will keep their reading log, using tags to distinguish what books they read each quarter. Goodreads has discussion capabilities, and I was thinking of using it for online book discussions. I understand the control of the ning (to monitor and block inappropriate content, and to keep discussion as private as I want); other than that, what pros/cons does the ning offer over book discussions at Goodreads and on our class blog?
• RSS Feeds: If I'm understanding correctly, if I make my ning private, I eliminate RSS feed capabilities. To have RSS Feeds I must make it public, but I can still allow visitors to see only the first page, and I can approve only members I want to join. Is this correct?
• For a final blanket question: I'd love to hear from teachers who are using the ning with their classes/parents. What advice for setting and managing one would you offer?
• Any advice or help anyone can offer would greatly be appreciated.

[Betty Tonsing]

I want to add to Julie's comment about creating 'private' groups within the learning process. We had (Global Visits) on a much older technology allowed public access to the discussion forums taking place between schools, at least with a read only, until we were hacked by a machine system. That prompted us to upgrade our system and our web site and we found ning! We struggle also the question as to whether groups, such as projects between two classrooms, should be restricted in order to protect the privacy and integrity of the project and the students. When we were with the older system, when it was violated we had remaining projects password protected, and we felt overall that the educational value of the project -- by restricting it to just the two groups -- while valuable for involved students was lost to others as a great learning tool. The instructors had participated in previous projects and actually felt sad that the discussions that took place could not read by a wider audience. We feel everything we do at Global Visits needs to be learning tool, and as we start to enter into new projects debate as to the value of restricting access by making groups private. Ultimately, it will be up to the two instructors and their students, but we can lend advice .

[Anne Baird]

@ julie @diane @ Lisa thanks so much for this discussion. My question leads on from the ideas that you had Julie about making the ning public and purposeful. I have created a ning for Year 9/10 students and I want them to study how the web is changing their lives. My challenge is how to make it real and interesting for them by attracting others to be part of the project. I have hopefully got another class from a neighbouring school but again this is not going to build up a group of students that engender that 'global' feeling. Obviously I haven't the 'pull' of teachers such as yourself Julie so how do I enlist the involvement of others? I wonder if I would have been better to have the students join a ning that already existed such as the digiteen ning. I really want this to be a positive experience for my students and one which they are doing because they are part of a global community and not because the teacher tells them.

[Diane Peters]

I plan to use a Wiki to have my students produce content for our Social Studies class. I think we will use our classroom blog to post our weekly writing/assignments.
I was thinking using the Ning to have students collaborate on vocabulary using ideas from Sara Kajder on Bringing the classroom in. My problem is that I want students to answer individually some comprehension questions on the story elements etc.
Any suggestions would be wonderful.

[Lisa Huff]

Ahhh...I didn't realize they would remove the ads. That's wonderful! I'll be sure to do that for my classroom ning and for the other ning I just launched for high school English teachers, Literacy Lighthouse. I've gone ning crazy!

[Julie Lindsay]

Lisa, can I suggest you ask your administration to start with unblocking the exact URL you need for your class Ning, also make sure you have contacted Ning and asked to have the advertising taken off for K-12 use.
I was running a workshop in Melbourne last week at the Australian Technical College (alternative program for Grades 11 and 12) and introducing teachers to Web 2.0....much to my consternation Ning was blocked as well! In future I will double check as to what is available...and try to have sites unblocked for PD purposes. This situation of 'powers to be' deciding what we can and cannot use in our classrooms is untenable. Good luck!

[Lisa Huff]

@ Dianne: I am actually happy with our wiki and blogs, but I'm exploring the ning to see if it's better--more efficient, more productive in accomplishing what we want.

@Julie: Thanks for the feedback. I see that the Ning does seem to create a community, bringing everyone together, much more so than individual blogs. I've been striving to create this community by creating a page on the wiki where students add links to their blogs so that we all have access, with one click, to each other's blogs (not to mention having them subscribe to each other's blogs). But, this is much less work; the connectivity happens automatically without me having to do any work. Nice.

Imagine my disappointment when I tried to open the ning I created at my school only to find nings blocked! My first step will have to be to convince the powers that be to unblock the site. Wish me luck!

[Julie Lindsay]

Hi Lisa, you have highlighted concerns and questions many of us are dealing with now. I am not involved with literature circles so cannot comment in that area however I have been using Ning with students for a year now.
The Ning is where all participants in the learning process can come together and share ideas and resources, including multimedia. Traditionally I have started my students blogging with blogger.com, but recently we are doubling up and it has become a little confusing. I have asked them to blog regulalry on blogger but to blog certain 'group specific' tasks on the Ning. Especially with the Flat Classroom and Horizon Projects and also with Digiteen, it is more useful to have the blog posts on a more global forum where others can read and respond, otherwise, once again students are writing mainly for themselves and their immediate teacher. Sometimes the students cross-post to blogger and the Ning. I am letting this filter through for now and not making any immediate decisions...the students will work it out. As long as I can find the input and creation I need from each student on either or both blogs I am happy. So, yes, maybe use the Ning to highlight certain posts or have specific tasks that must be completed on the Ning and require comments from each student as well.
The wiki provides a different purpose to the Ning. The wiki is about collaborative publication or individual publication (eg a digital portfolio). It is where students and teachers can produce content, discuss the process and and formative and summative development/assessment of this content and also embed multimedia. The Ning allows each member to develop a customized personal profile and to interact with all Ning members more easily than the wiki.
I am not sure about the RSS not working on a private Ning as I have never made one. I find making private spaces problematic and try to avoid it. One of the most amazing experiences in a Web 2.0 classroom is when a student receives a comment or other input from another student or teacher from a different classroom around the world. This is where the technology really speaks to us as educators and having a private online learning space, although a valuable step, does not allow this full experience of global interaction and connection.

[Diane Peters]

Great questions and I will be anxious to see what other people answer. I am debating using a Ning with my 7th graders or using our blog & wiki.
Can you tell me why you are not happy using the wiki?

I did use a closed online tool called Nicenet.org for literature circles. I did not want it to be open so that my quieter students would feel more comfortable contributing.