Introductions

[Steve Hargadon]

Welcome! Please introduce yourself, let us know who you are and where you are from, and, if you are already using Ning in an educational setting, how you are using it.

[Carolynn Bruton]

Hi there - our term is winding down but I am keen to pursue the options of using this Ning within my junior school lab. I have 12 classes of girls from Grades 1 - 6 who visit for an hour a week and more. I will watch and observe here for a while. If others are able to share links, videos and other practical social networking ideas for use in a junior school computer lab with me here I would find it valuable. Thanks

[Steve Hargadon]

Hi, Carolynn. Welcome! You may want to follow the discussion on the use of Ning for those under the age of 13. Clearly (to my mind), this kind of social networking is going to be of huge benefit in the classroom, but there is the COPPA issue that needs to be addressed. Take care.

[Carolynn Bruton]

Presumably COPPA is an issue re children's rights on the internet? We dont have that term/acronym in South Africa. I think the issue of publishing children's work and pictures on Nings/blogs in South Africa still has to be addressed. At our school I am in charge of updating the internet contract signed by pupils & their parents for our school. Am I on the right track?

I have a list of children who may not have their pics on the internet (very few) - most parents dont mind as long as their names are not mentioned as well.. Thanks Steve for the kind welcome... Carolynn

[Judi Wolf]

My name is Judi Wolf. I am retired from the position of Program Specialist for Technology in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights School District here in Ohio. Upon retiring I set up my own consulting business, Technology Teaching Concepts, Ltd. and for the most part travel around the country presenting workshops for teachers. The workshops are about using technology in the classroom, mainly for Grades K-6. I keep the participants in my workshops updated on my blog www.judiwolf.blogspot.com

[Steve Hargadon]

Hi, Judi! Glad to have you here. Have you used Ning for anything yet? Are you seeing social networking being done in K-6?

[Judi Wolf]

Hi Steve,

I see classroom teachers and technology coordinators/teachers in my workshops. I must tell you that I see a great disconnect with what I read, participate in, listen to on podcasts about Web2.0 and what uis actually happening in the classrooms. Many of these teachers are really just discovering what is on the Internet. I do introduce Web 2.0, try to encourage reading blogs and listening to podcasts and joining social networks. The reality is the time factor and so many of these teachers have families and home responsibilities that they just do not have the time to learn about the possibilities of Web2.0. I am trying to show them examples of what can be done - but it is a slow go and I think that the blogs I read (including yours and many others have to realize that the train is travelling very slowly and they should not be getting so far ahead that no one is following. This is just my observation.

[Steve Hargadon]

Yours is a great perspective, and I'm sure it is accurate.

I started Classroom 2.0 with the hope that in some way it would provide an easier entry into the Web 2.0 world... because there is so much and it can be pretty intimidating. I think Ning is particularly a good platform for starting out, and my hope is that using Ning will help provide an easier entry for teachers who want to learn more.

Good observation.

[Judi Wolf]

So Steve,

How do you think I can spread the word? What would you suggest as some of the ways a classroom teacher would use Ning in an elementary setting?
Judi Wolf

[Steve Hargadon]

You might want to make contact with some of the people who contributed to this thread: http://classroom20.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=649749%3ATopic%3A33910.

You could even start a thread here on the topic, and I think you'd get some response.

Do remember that right now Ning's terms of service don't allow you to focus a network on users under 13. We're working on figuring that out, but until then you might want to just research the issue... :)

[Greg Oz]

Greg C from Melbourne, Australia. I work across two education settings - an ESL setting where I teach refugees and immigrants and a teacher education setting. My ICT work is focused mainly on my ESL class. Most of my students have had little or no experience with computers or multimedia before. It's been an amazing learning curve for us all because they're so keen.

This term we've been making short movies to teach other students how to use the public transport system (so critical since we focus on 'settlement English' in our classes). They're a combination of short video segments and slides along with voiceovers in English and other languages. We've been using Moviemaker and Audacity and their levels of engagement are unlike what I've seen before. I think it's because they're making resources for their peers, and resources that they know from first hand experience are critical.

So I'm really excited to be part of this network...I'm currently planning for next year. I'm looking for teaching ideas/resources relating to key issues we've been facing. I'll start with 'File Management' which has caused all sorts of problems - ie. using folders, naming files, different iterations of files, saving etc. Although we've talked about it a lot - it's not connecting with them and we lose a lot of time as a consequence.

Better sign off ...so much I'm thinking and wondering about..look forward to the ongoing conversations

[Steve Hargadon]

I just love your transport project. So amazing. Brilliant. You are, I'm sure, aware of http://eflclassroom.ning.com/? Probably on there already?

[Kirsten Balding]

Hi... I'm Kirsten Balding from Melbourne, Australia. I teach Bioscience subjects in the TAFE section of RMIT. I'm checking out various social networking sites having recently stumbled on to their existence! I've been looking at various networking sites eg myspace, facebook. The initial idea was to start up an Alumni database that is a resource for my school (as we are interested in strengthening ties with industry). These social networking sites we figured are useful to the students too! I like the customisability (if that's a word) and simpleness of ning... So after an initial foraay into facebook & myspace I think I'll settle on putting the Alumni network at ning... (linking into the other sites)...