I’ve been part of some networks at Ning for some time. I check it once in a while. There are just fantastic networks there in which learning happens in a blog post, a photo, a reference in a forum, a connection to someone in your area, an exchange of comments. However, I’ve never really considered the power it holds. Ning is a platform that aggregates many of the tools every educator dreamed of in the past to keep communication flowing among participants of a group. And I’m not mentioning only in terms of classroom. I mean educators as learners need to have their sharing space for professional development. So, Ning is empowering. An educator can be part of a variety of networks according to his professional and personal interests and might create a network to connect to his students, as well.In my case, I had been part of other communities, but then it dawned on me that I could create a network to keep the students of an online course I was teaching connected. It was their wish. So, as a surprise of end of term, Ning became the beginning of another stage of our interaction. Plus, I realized that it was an open learning space in which I could invite friends and even former students to be there as they shared their interest in language learning. Another great aspect was that Ning was visually appealing and had features of a social networking that my younger students just love, infinite possibilities to add photos, videos, music, whatever they feel like sharing.Well, not to mention the fact that I requested an ad-free space. I got a first prompt reply saying that my students were adults. I told them that I had also invited teens for the space, and another quick reply: the ads had been removed! How cool is it to have a learning space with collaborative features which are just an educator’s dream plus the attention and support that every human being wish for in any service?
Thanks Ning Team! Part of my education and my learner’s success will certainly be due to your never-ending support to the educational community. View my page on ListeningPlus and join us!
Hi Carla
Your post about Ning motivates me to have a more attentive look at it. If that was one of the purposes of your post, you can be certain that you reached your goal.
Hi, João,
I’m glad you’ll look into Ning. It’s a powerful tool with great connectivity potential. I started it last week and I have already 17 members from present students to former students. Please, let me know what you think of it. Visit and join us, too!
Thanks for taking your time to give me feedback.
Carla:
Just wanted to mention that educators using Ning can come to http://education.ning.com to discuss tips and tricks with other educators using it.
Thanks!
Steve
Hi, Steve, I’m there, as a lurker, but always learning! I wish I had more time to keep track of the great conversations, sharing and learning going on there, but If it weren’t from what I heard from you, Julie Lindsay and Vicky Davis about the Ad-Free space at Ning, I’d never know it! Besides, one of my teens has already joined the group, so I’m glad to provide this chance for him with no ads that could be not appropriate for him.
Thanks! I’ll try to be more active!
I’m also part of
http://edubloggerworld.ning.com/
and I’m a huge fan of
http://classroom20.ning.com/
You’re doing a great job of converging great talents to those places!
Thanks.
Carla
Carla,
ning is really cool. I have become such a great fan. I have connected and come across very interesting people are resources through my ning-based networks.
And I think you are a natural ning facilitator. You have been doing a great job at Learning Plus and Blogging4educators is just great tioo.
keep up with your inspiring work.
Dear Cris,
I think we all learn there. Now, I thought we could send our feedback to ning and maybe they could work on it. What do you think? They are really interesting from the user’s perspective and can help Ning Team make it even better for us to network.
I guess those ning spaces only happen because of all the humans behind them! We are always feeding each other’s minds there.