Using+Ning+as+a+School+Social+Network

Using Ning as a School Social Network Session #DL06 Dianne Krause Ning – a social network tool that can easily be adapted for the classroom. It is essentially a “make your own facebook”. It appeals to students, allows large amounts of media uploads direct to the site for free and can contain features like a chat room, forum, blog. You can create a closed space by creating groups and making them private for members only.

The teacher creates a Ning and then the students can set up a “my page” – person who creates the Ning has the power to allow editing.

A Ning my page has status bar just like facebook. Students may choose their own templates and features (if the teacher has approved the features when the Ning was set up) and use some creativity to create their page. Each page has a comment wall. Ning pages are like profile pages on facebook.

Ning can also have blogs and discussion. Unlike Blogger- where only a certain amount of people can join and comment, it allows for a large number of commenters and can be a closed environment – a totally private Ning.

Ning – kids can view other kids pages – kids can also turn off that ability – kids need to friend each other if they chose privacy settings.

We are allowed to enter and view the presenters Ning as a guest but we are not allowed to comment or edit in any way. The presentor's ning can be found at:

[|http://wissahickon.ning.com]

login: wsdning@gmail.com password: guest

This is the speakers professional development Ning.

When creating a Ning it is important to note that Ning is a Social Network not made for education – so it is not as secure as some of the other blogging sites.

You can see an entire presentation on how to create a Ning plus some samples at: http:// dianekrause.wikispaces.com/ningprezo

Further advantage: a Ning owner can send a broadcast message to everyone in the Ning. It makes a great tool for collaboration. One warning- it is difficult to post and share resources. The presenter uses box.net to get around this. (She creates a storage for documents on box.net, copies and pastes the url into a text box such as the notes feature on her Ning and it will appear.)

For techies: you can embed anything that has html code with a few exceptions.

Note: Ning is blocked in some school districts, but it is possible to ask to open up only the specific url for your Ning. In order to participate in a Ning, students must have an email address and must be over 13.

Ning vs. Wiki

Ning- discussion features far more robust Private group feature is a big thing for creating closed safe spaces Profile page great for kids – kids can personalize it and they prefer it for it's similarity to Facebook Videos have comment box right there Ning allows more free upload space than Wiki Ning allows blogging if the teacher chooses to set up that feature Can upload videos directly- you don't have to go through you tube or teacher tube Ning has archive features – you can archive and privatize More features than wiki – more attractive to kids

Suggestion: set up Ning and invite parents

__How to Create a Ning__

Go to ning.com Give your ning a name Give your name an address Click create Sign up or sign in Describe your network Choose public or private (can change later – if you make a group THIS IS NOT TRUE) Add features (create manage tab) – drag them in- you can always change them later - whatever you drag in appears as a tab on the front page

Cannot change green right column – this stays no matter where you go in the Ning Appearance: choose a theme Use on screen prompts to help to get started with content Manage tab always available to change features – send broadcast emails etc. Ning Help is VERY Good!

NING RESOURCES: Classroom 2.0 – Ning for eductators [|http://classroom20.com]

Great resource for looking at professional social networking. [|http://ning.petteandc.org] [|http://ning.peteandc.com]

Using Nin for Educational Social Networks [|http://education.ning.com]

The Future of Education ning []

[] [|http://www.youtube.com] [] []

Also introduced prezi- a nonlinear presentation software

Good tools: mpeg stream clip download helper firefox tool

Also introduced a Prezi- a nonlinear presentation software that is free.

To embed Prezi in a Ning go to prezi and get embed codethen go to Ning and put where ever there is a text box – ex- in a note

go to prezi site click on embed code copy the code go to Ning click on a text place (ex- note) copy and paste