Ning as A High School Teaching Tool

[Robert Halter]

Hello,

I am new to Ning and this Web site. I am interested in creating a Ning for my Economics course for juniors and seniors in high school. As of right now I am just in the planning stages and I am curious about what others have done as far as using Ning as an educational tool. I know its difficult to access these communities seeing that most of them must be private. Just looking for some examples, guidance, and help with how to integrate this social netowrk platform into instruction.

Thanks

[Steve Dickie]

We have several ning networks in my school now. Personally I use Ning with my physics students as a way to share class notes. Each day one students is designated a "Scribe" ala. Darren Kuropatwa. They post a summary of the days notes from class as well as upcoming assignments/tests. They do this as a blog post. In the forums students ask each other for help. As you might guess there is much more traffic on the site the night before a test or when a big assignment is due.

One of our Religion teachers (I'm in a Catholic school) has started using Ning in his class as a way for students to turn in work that is often interactive. One he told me about recently involved students finding video clips relating to the upcoming election. The students had to embed or link to the clip and then fact check the statements made, while linking to their sources. He also post prompts that students have to reflect on.

A history teacher in our building uses it for Scribes and also posts prompts for students to write about in Ning.

[Nancy Bosch]

I hear the intro video and other resources on the main page of this ning are helpful.