Sadly the education.ning.com is still under maintenance. This has really put a dampener on my investigation. I have, however, come across a post be Steve Hargadon. He is a blogger, and started the Classroom 2.0 website discussed in Current Events #5. Hargadon is the Emerging Technologies Chair for ISTE, the author of 'Educational Networking: The Important Role Web 2.0 Will Play in Education,' the recipient of the 2010 Technology in Learning Leadership Award (CUE), and a blogger at www.SteveHargadon.com."
On August 23, 2007 Hargadon wrote a blog post regarding Ning's and the development of education.ning.com. After he have created Classroom 2.0 he saw the benefits of social networking and education. he suggested to the creator of Ning.com to go on an educational route and, as he stated in his blog, "so education.ning.com was born."
His hope with education.ning.com is to establish a location where educators can share their ideas, thoughts and feelings on education in a safe environment. I believe this philosophy can and is being stretched further as educators start to create education Nings for their classrooms. The potential for social networks in the classroom are vast.
Kist (2010) defines the Ning with other social networking, meaning "the kind of communication that takes place online using some kind of platform (Web site) such as Facebook, Twitter, or Ning in which people can place messages and connect with others who are on the Website." Overall the Ning will provide students and teachers, depending on who the target group is, with a social networking platform outside of Facebook and Twitter (but still could be connected to both) where students and teachers can discuss important topics in education.
Kist (2010) expresses an example where a teacher "Tom" has used a Ning in his classroom for a project. The Ning is set up as a discussion board where he has posted several topics, and students have the freedom to add their own discussion topics as well. He states, "The Ning was the space in the project that was more appropriate for expressing opinions..." Students were given a safe judge-free environment to comment on their projects and their beliefs.
I think once education.ning.com has completed it's maintenance I will be investigating the Ning set up. I realize this may take place after this course has been completed, but I think this could be beneficial to some of the classes I am working with. I think even younger grades, where students are starting to use social networking more actively, this could peak their interests and engage them in expressing their learning. My French 7 class might even get on board, but they might be 'too cool' for Nings too.
References
Hargadon, S. (2004). About Me. Retrieved from
Hargadon, S. (August 23, 2007). Starting a New "Ning in Education" Network.
Retrieved from http://www.stevehargadon.com/2007/08/starting-new-
Kist, W. (2010). The Socially Networked Classroom: Teaching in the new media
age. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
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