Thing #23 Ning-credible

I was so impressed with Ning. I watched the video of the creator of Ning and was anxioius to tour the site. I started with Classroom 2.0. Wow! It's hard to believe that he only started it a little more than a year ago! It's amazing how many people are in his network, all learning from and teaching one another. Very impressive. I also want to check out Ning's Christian alternative to MySpace. I'll need to go back to Ning to find that...it was mentioned in their article, 7 things you should know about Ning.

Most applicable to us though was the sub-topic within that article; Implications for teaching and learning..
"For today's students who spend countless hours on Facebook and MySpace, faculty participation on those networks is often seen as an intrusion into a private domain. Ning provides an avenue for instructors to take advantage of social networks in a neutral setting, offering functionality and an experience that are familiar and comfortable to students. By creating social networks around academic topics, or even about specific projects for a course, an instructor can facilitate a strong sense of community among the students, encouraging personal interactions that can lead to the creation of new knowledge and collective intelligence."

I couldn't have said it better myself!

So, there you have it...my final "Thing".