Teacherlingo was interesting because the first thing I saw was some negative comments. So, initially I thought, OMG, not more of the same of like being at school and hearing teachers vent. So, I started reading 7 Things about Ning. Good information. I was not sure of it being the right thing to do with limited English students that even if they did this in their first language are not literate or fluent, which is why they have problems learning English (along with the fact that no English is practiced at home or with friends unless they are a different ethnicity and the language that they can have in common is the English they are learning! I can see where this might be a good forum for debate students or other types of like clubs, etc. As I continued to read "a vehicle for "social networking"; well, yes that is the problem. All our students want to do is socialize all day long. If we could get education woven into the socialization for learning fluency, that would be effective learning. I can see using Nings for high school classes and college classes to stay in touch, also. But, there are other ways.
A guy from my high school graduating class started a website for us. It is great. And it is private. That is important to me. It behaves and he controlls it similar to how a Ning is described in the section "Why it is Significant?", but it doesn't have ning in the address so I know it isn't a ning.
It was interesting to read that through the process of nings, "best practices for social networking will emerge and rise to the top..." There are so many ways to social network that it is boggling to me!
I can see that creating a Ning could be used somewhat like a Wiki. So I will probably try both approaches with my students/classes and get their opinion.
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