Using Nings with Middle School Students

[Jennifer Carbonneau]

What are the implications for using a ning with middle school students? What are the dangers? I know the benefits are priceless. I am assuming that these are safe places when I select the privacy fearture. Is my assumption correct? What should I include in a presentation to parents? How do I sell them on this rhealm of technology? Is a ning the best method? I am hoping that my page would facilitate discussions or student and class readings as well as a place to do peer reviews of writing. I realize that I will have to teach the ethics of using technology and respecting other's coprighted resources. What am I missing? What are the loop holes that my administrator may see when I present it to him? What reservations do school techs have? Anything you can offer that will help me prepare for this venture would be helpful.

[Barbara Cohen]

Nancy, that is exactly the kind of scenario that kept me up at night a few weeks ago before we launched! We're still only a week (and 2 homework assignments) in, but we are having a definite love affair with the Ning so far.

Even at this early stage, the kids are engaged in a level of writing and discussion the English teacher has never seen before! (She taught some of these students last year.) The best thing has been the way in which they reference and quote each other's ideas to expand their own thinking.

Susan, your point about creating a false sense of security while publishing online without an accompanying sense of accountability is well taken...on the flip side, if the teacher's goal is to encourage the kids to take risks with their writing in front of each other, something about the fact that it's through the website rather than during class time seems to be opening them up to a different kind of writing -- the sort of "walled garden" analogy.

I dunno...this is definitely uncharted territory for us. Thanks so much for the great thought-provoking conversation!

[Jennifer Carbonneau]

We will always run into the road block of parents without the ablitiy or desire to incorporate this technology. It makes full-class activities less obtainable.

[Jim Walker]

I have been using Ning for PD and I am currently setting one up for a high school program so I will not have the age problem. When I did teach in a middle school my reason for using a Ning was 12 and 13 year-olds are already on MySpace and Facebook with no supervision, at least a Ning at school is monitored and supervised. Eight year old's can get books that are violent or sexual, does that mean we should wait until they are 14 before they learn to read? Kids have TV's and computers in their bedroom and watch them with little or no supervision, yet schools are told we have to be the police. At school some one is modeling proper social network use.

[Jennifer Carbonneau]

Great point! But it's Ning that prevents the 12-year-olds from registering. How did you get past that?

[Jim Walker]

Not much you can do about Ning. The way we connect and form groups is fundamentally changing so education and society will have to adapt. See Clay Shirky's book Here Comes Everybody.

[Jennifer Carbonneau]

Thank you for brining that up. I will check out Shirky's book.

[Steve Hargadon]

Shirky's book is one of those "drop whatever you are doing and go and read this" books. :)

[Steve Hargadon]

Hi, Jennifer.

As an FYI, I can tell you that it's not Ning's desire to prevent 12-year-olds from getting the benefit of social networking in education, but they have to comply with COPPA. Imbee.com, which made it their sole focus to comply with COPPA and provide networking for younger kids, was fined substantially for violating COPPA. As a society, and legally, we are not making it easy to have our youth use these tool; and it will take some time to sort out these tricky issues.

Because a Network Creator is largely in control of his or her network and would likely be held responsible for COPPA compliance, I'd strongly recommend against finding a way around the Ning age requirements. :(

[Jennifer Carbonneau]

I appreciate your information--I figured it was something legal.

[Renee Ramig]

Nings are by far the easiest way to do forums (blogging) for middle school kids that I have found. You can add pictures and videos too which is a great added bonus.

Is there any talk of making this available for students under 13? It is so much easier to use than other tools I have tried, even those geared specifically for education. I really want to use Nings even in my 4th and 5th grade classroom.

From reading some of the replies, it sounds like there are a lot of us out there asking for this. Maybe we can find a way to make it happen!

Thanks

[Steve Hargadon]

It's not a case of Ning not wanting to do this--I can assure you, they are as disappointed as anyone else to not be able to offer networks for those under 13. But it is the practical reality that COPPA is very strict, and even networks that try really hard to be compliant--like Imbee.com--can be fined (Imbee was).

[Marielle]

Steve, can you say more about this? On what grounds did Imbee (or would a private Ning network) violate COPPA? Just trying to understand the issue...(It may be a legal matter, but laws can change if informed citizens lobby effectively...)
Thanks.
Marielle