NING

=NING in the classroom =

Most people are familiar with one or more social networking sites, such as [|MySpace] or [|Facebook]. A social networking site is any website that allows a user to create a profile and interact with other users on the site in a variety of ways. Facebook, for example, allows people to create groups around particular interests, post messages on a friend's profile page, send and receive messages, post photos, maintain a blog, and play games with other users. While MySpace and Facebook are sites with limited academic potential because they have a primarily social function*, a number of other sites are out there that have practical applications for students and teachers.
 * Social Networking and NING:**


 * //That may be changing, as Blackboard recently announced a new application that students may add to their Facebook profiles that allows them to receive notices when anything is added to their Blackboard courses. No content is available; simply a notification that content has been added.//

[|NING] is a free website that was developed to allow people to create their own social networking sites. Users can set up these communities (also called Nings) to allow participants to post almost any kind of information and interact with one another via blogs, discussion lists, and email. A Ning can be a powerful tool for bringing a large number of people together around a particular topic. A teacher could create a Ning devoted to the issue of climate change, for example, and invite people from other institutions (students and teachers from other schools, activists, scientists, etc.) to join and post information, start discussions, or exchange data for a specific project. The link takes you to the official Ning site; see below for examples of ways HH teachers have employed or participated in specific Nings. ("Ning," by the way, is not an acronym, according to Wikipedia; it means "peace" in Chinese.)

[|Winterim Web 2.0 class]: We used a NING as the home base for a Winter semester course on Web 2.0 tools. Freshmen and sophomores who were enrolled in the course used this NING as the daily starting point for a course which explored blogging, podcasting, and voice threads. The course was a big success!
 * NINGs we created:**

[|HH-BI Amistades]: This NING is a focal point for Harpeth Hall Spanish language students to interact with English language students in Spain!

[|Independent School Ning] [|AISL Ning] (Independent School Librarians) [|Laptop Learning Ning] [|NAIS Ning] [|Teacher Librarian Ning] [|eLatin eGreek eLearn] (Teachers and Students of Latin and Greek) [|Library Thing]- a place to keep track of books read and to network with other readers. You can join groups who share your literary interests.
 * Other Social Networks in which we participate**: