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.

[Steve Hargadon]

I don't want to present myself as a legal expert. But there are definitions in COPPA and the FAQ that are unclear and don't seem to have imagined commercial services that allow the creation of non-commercial specific communities or sites. Until they are clear it makes it very hard to determine compliance, and difficult because Ning might be found ultimately responsible for actions taken by specific network administrators who don't act as carefully as they should. I would suggest reading both the legislation and the FAQ.