Saturday, April 17, 2010

Thing #22

The only thing I have ever known about Nings is that they were free social networking sites that were private. A lot of educators use Nings in order to promote community and discussion in their classes because firewalls prevent teachers/students from using Facebook or Myspace.

While I was preparing for this post, I found an online article from Wired that discussed co-founder, Marc Andreessen, not being able to keep Nings free any longer. Besides being able to create a content-specific network, the cost of creating a Ning network is one of the major benefits of this platform.

Instead of paying for this service, educators need to look into Facebook and take down the firewalls! On Facebook, groups can be created that are private and can function very similarly to that of the Ning...without any kind of cost.

I reviewed the Texas School Librarians Ning. Although it has 317 members, it does not look like an active network. On the forum tab, there are lots of questions, but only one has any responses! I did find some really cute book reviews/story tubes posted under videos.


Find more videos like this on Texas School Librarians


I think I'll stay with my Facebook network...

2 comments:

  1. Michelle, I agree that Facebook is still a good option for networking and can be a viable alternative for NING now that it's no longer free. I heard that Katyisd is launching a facebook page. I wonder if that means we'll be able to see it from a computer in the network?

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  2. The Teacher Librarian Ning set up by Joyce Valenza is a pretty active ning that you can find info and answers to questions.
    But I thin a FB network is a good idea as well.

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