Using Ning for Your Class

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Permalink Reply by Vincent Mespoulet on September 6, 2008 at 12:11am

Hi Shavon,

yes we have our ning created last year: School Beyond the Walls. For this new schoolyear i'll work with 6th and 7th Graders. But I would like to experiment achievements and projects with younger kids to teach/learn foreign languages (we are french but many pages are both in french and english) and develop relationships between pupils speaking different languages by using music, songs, dances and drawings...

See U soon on School Beyond the Walls ?
Vincent

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Permalink Reply by Lani on September 6, 2008 at 7:08am

I haven't created it yet, but I plan on working with an English teacher (high school level) on a project on heroes. She wanted students to create profiles of a hero of their choice as if they were creating a myspace/facebook profile. She especially wants students to be able to write on the hero's walls. When its finished I'll post it!

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Permalink Reply by Steve O'Connor on September 6, 2008 at 10:38am

Use of Ning by 4th graders would violate Ning's Terms of Service and US COPPA laws. Users must be at least 13 years old.

If your tech people could install them, there are open source alternatives that would work.

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Permalink Reply by Shavon Davis-Louis on September 6, 2008 at 6:42pm

Thanks. That makes it easy :-(

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Permalink Reply by Steve O'Connor on September 7, 2008 at 1:16pm

Don't give up. Talk to your techies. Who knows--maybe they have SharePoint, or a Linux server that could run an open source app like elgg.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on September 6, 2008 at 6:00pm

Unfortunately, Steve is right about the age issue. So sorry!

For more information on using Ning networks with students, it's worth joining http://education.ning.com/. There's also a wiki page with a ton of educational Ning networks listed at http://socialnetworksined.wikispaces.com/.

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Permalink Reply by Shavon Davis-Louis on September 6, 2008 at 6:43pm

Thanks. I joined the education.ning.com shortly after starting this discussion. Also thaks for the wiki suggestion.

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Permalink Reply by Shavon Davis-Louis on September 6, 2008 at 6:43pm

Thanks. I joined the education.ning.com shortly after starting this discussion. Also thaks for the wiki suggestion.

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Permalink Reply by Sue Palmer on September 8, 2008 at 11:15am

Another option would be to have your school create a Moodle. My website is created in Drupal, another opensource platform which your tech people might use for a site for younger students. Good Luck!

Sue P

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Permalink Reply by Steve O'Connor on September 8, 2008 at 1:03pm

Moodle, Elgg, Drupal, Mahara.

If your tech people can't or won't consider renting server space (VERY CHEAP). Maybe your PTA would donate the funds.

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Permalink Reply by Cliff Lyon on April 28, 2010 at 9:31am

www.Trunity.net has a great new fully-hosted platform which allows anyone to build a Drupal Class content management website.

TrUnity is a fully hosted social publishing platform on which anyone or organization to create scaleable, group managed websites and communities, easily. Its perfect for schools and teachers and students, at many levels and is being used in many different ways.

Great for learning web 2.0 publishing, as a tool for delivering curricula and assignments or just to build a website for the soccer team.

There are also many great educational NGOs using the platform to further their educational mission statements.

Please contact me by e-mail (cliff@trunity.net) or Skype (clifflyon) to discuss how we can support you.

Thank you for your kind consideration.

examples:
http://www.trunity.net/see/ - virtual Stanford online course
http://www.cosmosportal.org/ - Top astronomers publishing current information about the Cosmos.

Check it out and call me with any questions.

Cliff 801.274.0882

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