Anyone interested in exploring the educational use of Ning?

I start my class Ning site this semester (at gaofei.ning.com), and am exploring how to use Ning to build a learning community in and outside the classroom.

Currently, the site is used for students to post their assignments and to share information such as news related to educational technology. I am also considering inviting students from previous class to participate in some of the discussions. But, I don't think this is enough, and I am still in the stage of exploration.

I am open to any creative ideas or suggestions regarding how we could make best use of such social networking site in our own teaching and how to conduct research on this.

Please let me know what you think. Thanks! :)

Fei

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Permalink Reply by Matthew Smith on November 21, 2009 at 3:48pm: Hello Fei,
I am an electrical teacher at a Technical College here in Brisbane Australia and teach students between the ages of 16 and 50.
Could you please tell me if you have experienced any difficulty in encouraging your students to use social networking for education as I think this is going to be a challenge with some (most?) of my students.
Another teacher has tried something similar and found that she needed to make the information assessable before the students would begrudgingly participate.
Do you have any suggestions as to how I moght avoid this?
Regards
Matt; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Deedee on February 2, 2010 at 7:30am: Hi Fei,

I am working with a colleague who has been using Ning with his students to engage them pre, during and post-university. The site has been running now for 1 year and seems to have been a success.

Dee; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Fei Gao on February 4, 2010 at 10:39pm: That sounds very interesting, Dee. I am curious about how you and your colleague have been using it. Do you mind sharing the link of the site with me?

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Permalink Reply by Stefanie Panke on February 2, 2010 at 12:54pm: Hello!
I have written a short piece on the potential of social networking sites in education, maybe you will find it interesting:
http://etcjournal.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/social-networking-weavin...
Best,
Stefanie; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Fei Gao on February 4, 2010 at 10:37pm: Thank you for sharing this, Stefanie! i will definitely check it out.

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