Social+Networking

Social networking sites allow teachers and students the opportunity to share and collaborate with one another. Teachers can use social networking sites to exchange lessons, ideas for best practices, tips, techniques, and as a means of social support.

One type of social networking site is called Ning. According to Wikipedia, Ning is an online platform for people to create social networks around a specific interest. The format of a Ning site is simple and similar across all Ning sites, although Ning site creators are allowed to make some changes. In the free version, there are ads controlled by Ning. The biggest problem I have with Ning is that there is no searchable Ning directory. This feature was disabled in November 2009. However, I have put together a list of Ning sites that are related to education, technology, differentiated instruction, and subject that you might find useful. Each link opens in a new browser.

=Ning Sites:=
 * New: Some of the Ning sites below may not be live anymore as Ning no longer provides free Nings. If you click on one that is not live, please use the edit button to delete the site.

AP English Art Education 2.0 Blogging4Educators Ning Blogs, Nings, and Social Networking Classroom 2.0 Ning Edublogger World EFL Classroom Ning English Companion Ning FlatClassroomProject Images4Education ISTE Community I Teach Social Studies Ning K12 Online Learning in Maine Community Literacy in a Digital Classroom Making Curriculum Pop Making It Personal Mathematics 24x7 Media Arts Education Net MSP2 Music Techie Teachers Ning National Council for the Social Studies Ning NCTE Ning NL Connect by Alan November Promethean IWB Users School 2.0 Seedlings SMART Board Revolution Teacher-Librarian Ning Teachers 2.0 Teaching Digital History Teaching Every Student Tech4Maine Tech Friends Technology Integration in Special Education Technology Rich Classrooms The CUE Community The Educator's PLN The Future of Education Ning The Global Education Collaborative The Interactive Whiteboard Revolution Technology Integration in Education Ning We Are Teachers Community =Twitter= Twitter is a form of microblogging where members can post "tweets," short messages limited to 140 characters. Check out this video from Chris Haskell over at Cool Teacher Podcast below to see how Twitter can be used in the classroom. media type="youtube" key="cv5qvSlXTmA" height="340" width="560" align="center"

=Edmodo= Free, and very similar in layout to Facebook. Teachers and students can share ideas, events, files, and assignments. =Schoology= Similar to Edmodo, this site is also a web-based learning management system with a Facebook-like setting. Schoology is also free. =Facebook/MySpace= =Moodle= Teachers can create online classes with this free open-source web application.

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