Yay for Ning!

I first experienced the wonderful world of Ning this summer during my fellowship at the University of Missouri. I met 34 amazing publications teachers; all with different skills and knowledge.

One of the teachers presented on the Ning. We were in the lab (it was a two and a half hour workshop during the morning session), I created the rb16 news site immediately, and she helped me throughout the workshop. By the time it was over I had a very simple Ning page, with no bells or whistles.

When I met with my Advanced Broadcast students before school started, I presented the Ning to them and hoped that they would be as excited as I was when I saw the social network site. To be honest, it took a great deal of time to embed the Ning into our class culture. They liked the idea of it, but it was too new to them.

At first, I assigned work to be posted to it. After awhile, the students were focused more on designing the live program than designing the Ning. I then asked a few students to form a Ning committee to redesign the site and make it work for them; they jumped on it and took over.

The purpose of the site is to make communication easier among the students, document ideas and share successes. With a weekly deadline, it is very difficult for everyone to get together at the same time for a long period; there are at least 7 groups working on different tasks/stories/projects every day. We meet once a week for a round table discussion and for the first 5 minutes of each class period; the students are dedicated to their projects and completing them within the deadline. So, it is imperative that everyone is on the same page and that everyone's ideas are taken into consideration so that the live show on Thursday is flawless. With the Ning, the producers can read it whenever they can, take mental notes, and address the comment/suggestion in class the next day.

It has also helped that I have been in the 17 Things program; since I have been participating, I can already see the RB16 Ning getting more substance in its content. I've been sharing the tech tools with the students and they are running with it. They are really using Ning to its full potential; in the classroom, I'm hearing a lot of "just Ning it" and "can you put it on the Ning and I'll look at it tonight?" One of my students asked if she could add a poll to it...ummm...yes! and I know how to do it! Thanks, 17 Things!