Ning is a social networking site that lets you to join or create social networks on topics you're interested in. (Middle and high school teachers can get ad-free accounts from Ning.)
Ning's features include
- discussion forums
- blogs
- chat
- posting of photos and videos
- privacy controls that allow only members to enter and participate
(for example, try entering the Ning for my first-year composition course.)
Ning's features facilitate
- interaction and sharing of ideas,
- reading,
- writing,
- revisiting of and building upon previous discussions, and thus
- learning.
Class and Student Examples
Nings can be used to support classroom learning or to support extracurricular activities. Here are some examples:
- Fan Fiction Unlimited
- Middle School Computers
- Alliance of Students Against Poverty
- Students Speak Out: Milwaukee
- To Kill a Mockingbird Response Ning (Read Tara Seale's post on how she used this Ning and another in her 9th grade English class.)
- 107 Voices (10th grade English)
- Hedman's Math
- The T-Bird Times (The Northfield Community School Newspaper / Multimedia Club
- For more examples of class Nings, see Angela Cunningham's list.
Nings for Teachers
Quite a few Nings exist for educators to share questions and thoughts with one another. Here are a few:
- Classroom 2.0
- College 2.0
- School 2.0
- Ning in Education
- Middle School Portal 2: Science & Math Pathways
Communities and Miscellaneous
- Greenwood High School Social Network
- The High School
- Flat Classroom Project
- Nancy White's personal journey in using social media.
Note: To use Ning, one must be 13 or older.