I accepted an invitation to join the Ning group and viewed the page. It looks similar to a facebook page and has similar function. I uploaded a photo here at Imp. Then I tried to do more from my home computer. Ning required me to sign -up again so I was a bit impatient with that. I can see clearly that a closed area where a group could share ideas on a topic would be very useful educationally especially since no matter how uncontroversial you think your discussion topic is you can always get your “Wall” space highjacked by some silly argument. My history group on facebook was recently highjacked by two such folk having different opinions on if one should go to war with Napolen Boneparte should he miraculously come to life and want to lead an army in the modern world…very silly. On the other hand I don’t like the idea of any educational information being in a “members only” space because you learn much more by viewing others questions and dialog on topics than you do if access to info is restricted. I think that open access to all dialog on educational topics is very, very important …so I don’t like Ning.
September 29, 2008
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The thing about Ning is that it is more a ‘social network platform’ than it is a social network. That is to say, you can have hundreds/thousands/millions of separate social networks that all use the Ning software.
Anyone can create a Ning site, and the creator can decide who has access to the social network they have created – which can include making it publicly available. So if you use Ning, you can decide who has access.
The kind of thing that you can do with Ning is at the drop of a hat create an environment dedicated to something with blogs/discussions/SN tools etc. I’ve done this with an event I’m trying to organise – http://mashedlibrary.ning.com – it was relatively quick to setup, and it does the job.
So – don’t write off Ning because of the restricted access available in the Ning space setup for the Learning 2.0 programme.
Also, just to comment on the general quesetion of whether ‘education’ spaces should be open or closed. Although I agree generally that it is good to have education material publicly available, when it comes to user created content I think we have to be more careful – I might be happy to say something in a ‘safe’ environment where just my peers are, than I would in a public environment. I think you risk putting people off contributing to the discussion if you make it public, as well as risking the kind of problems you saw on Facebook. There are strengths and weaknesses to both approaches, but for me it isn’t as simple as ‘open is good’.
Comment by ostephens — September 29, 2008 @ 2:32 pm