Your help requested - Why are Nings so useful to you?

[Raman Job]

I'm presenting on Nings to 90 teachers on Nov. 19. Could you please reply to this discussion with where you teach and why you find Nings so useful? It would help me demonstrate to them the power of these wonderful communities.

[Mary Elizabeth Chalmers]

Ray,
Myself and another teacher within my school have set up a ning to try and use it as a professional learning community. We are also using it to pass information regarding teaching techniques and ideas.
Mary

[Raman Job]

Very cool, Mary. I appreciate knowing that. Are people jumping in?

[Mary Chalmers]

Not overly, but it may take some for people to see the benefits. We have invited everybody in our school. However that being said my principal seems to be interested and supportive.

[Nathanial Q.]

It’s certainly true that Nings are getting to be almost commonplace nowadays! It’s so different now – so many bloggers talking about their Nings. I remember back in early 2007 when I first introduced this idea to CEO schools I was working with, and Dean started using Nings so successfully – while others hadn’t even heard of blogs, wikis, nings or anything. So it’s fabulous to have so many links and so many people discovering this tool. We’ve got lots of Nings happening at Joeys and I love the variety of ways they are used, in so many subject areas. I think our PLPer Gary has the record number though – one for every single one of his classes. Welcome to the fantastic world of Ning! Congrats on the work you’re doing with Year 9. Besides you will not need any secured loans in the UK.

[Raman Job]

Sounds like you discovered Nings rather early, Nathanial. Thanks for your comments!

[Beth]

We use the ning two fold in our building. First and foremost we use it as a PLC, professional learning community. The entire staff is enrolled and it is a great place to dialoge and share ideas and hints. We often hash out the hard issues on the ning instead of during staff meetings. I think it would be even more successful if more teachers on the staff used it on a regular basis. I see much more potential for it than is currently being utilized.
I also use it in my class. Each student signs up and uses it for various things. I have 8 groups per class period and each has their own space on the ning to post ideas and share projects. Students can retrieve vocabulary, ask for help, and just hang out with friends in a safe online environment. It is a great learning tool for responsiblity and for class.
Beth

[Raman Job]

Now that's a use I hadn't heard of before, Beth--using a ning to discuss issues between staff meetings. Do you have any ideas as to why more folks aren't using it?

Sounds like your students are making good use of theirs. I especially like your comment about kids hanging out in a safe, online environment. Those private nings are great and avoid some of the spam issues that can crop up from time to time when they're public.

Again, I want to show teachers the value in nings, so really I appreciate your comments Beth.

[Lee Anne Morris]

We have recently started our ning site: http://eighthfloor.ning.com/ . The Eighth Floor is a technology and learning site for area educators. We are a consortium. We only have 3 full time teachers and find that we never have enought time in the F2F classroom. Our idea with the ning site it to extend our classroom and capitalize on the informal learning opportunities that exist in our learning network. We welcome anyone who is interested in technology integration in the classroom. We have started a couple of groups, so far: SMART Groups and a group for Advisory Committee members. We share sites, videos, ideas, and try to start discussions. We are having a bit of trouble getting things really rolling, but I admit we have not had much time to spend getting the whole thing spinning. Any suggestions on lighting a fire under this would be welcome!

Lee Anne

[Raman Job]

Looks very good, Lee Anne. And it's obvious that some people are really keen to participate.

Like many nings, including my own, it may not have the critical mass yet to keep a large volume of dialogue going. I was about to ask if you folks were on Twitter until I saw the @The8thFloor user name posted at the top of the main page. It seems like a brand new account. I would jump start that activity hard by following as many ed tech folks as you can, and perhaps inservicing your local folks on Twitter so they are familiar with building their own PLN.

Twitter is invaluable in pointing people to new blog posts and other content on your ning.

You can find teachers to follow at twitter4teachers. Google can turn up even more sites.

One thing I do from time to time is run a contest. You know, throw a text box up in the left margin with the details and offer some schwag to people who:

-Start or reply to a discussion,
-Post a profile picture if they haven't already,
-Put up a blog post, or
-Send invitations to three of their friends (teachers are good with the honor system).

You can encourage any activity you want. Make sure to send a broadcast message to all the members of your ning with the details including the deadline (usually about a week out works best). Make the draw and publish the winning names on the ning. It helps if you throw a picture of the prize into your text box. I'm sure there are lots of other ideas out there for encouraging participation.

Also, sign up to Google Analytics to track your hits, and www.clustrmaps.com so you can see where your visitors are from.

Good luck and thanks for the feedback, Lee Anne.

[Lee Anne Morris]

Thanks for all the good ideas! I like the contest idea.

Thank you for your time and your comments.
Lee Anne

[Alan Pilkenton]

I live in Michigan and our state technology association uses Ning for social networking between technology members. The site for the Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning (MACUL) is a used by over 2000 members to share ideas, network and stay connected to what is happening in the area of Educational Technology in Michigan.

MACUL