NING as a Teaching Platform?

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Permalink Reply by Skip Zilla on June 7, 2007 at 4:39pm

Meg,
Transforming your former Literacy Camp at TechTeachers.com into the new Tech Camp for Educators on Ning is tellingly the plot of a story about how your consulting practice has changed to meet new challenges faced by those you serve. The transformation goes way beyond a mere change from "teachers" to "educators" in the name of the camp. Your "campers" will greatly benefit from the new interactivity, Web information gathering and management capabilities, and on-line creativity and productivity apps available to them because of your new strategy. I predict that all who participate in your camp will gain, not only new skills, but also a new perspective on engaging kids in their own learning. My only bit of advice is that you allow your participants to remain connected to you and one another as resources, forming a friendly community of continuing professional practice and development. If this means added cost that you cannot afford to bear alone, then possibly charge a modest monthly or annual fee for continued support and development news. I see this kind of follow up with your participants, not only an imperative to prevent a discontinuity in their practical use of new skills learned, but also a good practice for your consulting business.
IMHO, you're headed for new successes in developing educators for new roles in classrooms. All the best.

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Permalink Reply by Meg Ormiston on June 8, 2007 at 7:11am

LOL (laugh out loud), for all of us that are just starting to "get it", it being shortened words to communicate faster. I was reading along what Skip had posted nodding my head and agreeing, and the last line I was not sure what IMHO stood for, stop laughing I am over 40! Luckily I have my powerful tools with me and jumped to Google for the answer!
That simple act of clarifying my understanding using the powerful technology made me think about all the kids and teachers that do not have immediate access to clarify their understanding. We need to rethink so much!
Thanks Skip for your thoughts about my shift in thinking, you are right on! I am modeling the new tools, new strategies that will make a huge difference in teaching and learning. You hit a critical point about communicating after the class. We tried this through a group email last summer, but our communication fizzled after a short time. I need to shift me thinking to building a learning community with this week as just laying a foundation. I also am adding the element of Second Life to showcase their work, this will be a huge shift for many! Thanks for helping me think outside the box!

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Permalink Reply by kenrodoff on June 7, 2007 at 6:52pm

A haiku:

There is no right thing
blackboard, wiki, learnerblog
ask why?and what for?

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Permalink Reply by Meg Ormiston on June 8, 2007 at 7:12am

agreed, I am going for it!!

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Permalink Reply by Kevin H. on June 10, 2007 at 3:51pm

This makes me wonder, too, about how to use Ning with students.
Anyone tried that?
For me, that is the direction I see myself going.
But maybe that is its own topic for a forum.
Thanks for sharing your plans.
Kevin

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Permalink Reply by Meg Ormiston on June 13, 2007 at 2:28pm

Maybe we should create a forum, I should be full of tales after next week, and the following week I can fix everything I did wrong with a new group!! My students will be adults, but I am excited to report back!

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Permalink Reply by Bob Sprankle on June 30, 2007 at 8:52am

Kevin,

I am also investigating the possibilities of using Ning with students --- 3rd and 4th graders. I'd be interested in joining a forum to further discuss this. :)

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Permalink Reply by Kevin H. on June 30, 2007 at 9:00am

Hi Bob
I did create a forum to discuss this.
Check it out when you get a chance.
Thanks
Kevin

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Permalink Reply by julz on June 11, 2007 at 12:59pm

Hi Meg, I plan to do this as well. I used a service called Near-Time for my course Fostering Online Learning Communities but for the next go around, I think I'm going to use Ning. Maybe those of us doing this should collaborate on a research paper...
;)
~julz

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Permalink Reply by Meg Ormiston on June 13, 2007 at 2:27pm

Julz,
I do like the idea of a research paper, I just replied to Hans, take a look at that, maybe we can begin to structure something. As I said, I am a little on edge, really rethinking MY role as facilitator. I know the content inside out, but I have to change my thinking and approach. I had 40 administartors in my session today and when I showcase our classroom 2.0 and talked about the rich conversations I think many of them lumped this into a "MY SPACE" nonsense. I had one woman almost jump out of her skin explaining to the group how difficult it was for her as an older learner adapting to a LMS in her first distance learning class, where the young students had no problem and they ran circles around her the first week. She talked about the relationships and the conversations, and how much she learned from the group not just the instructor. Yet I am begining to really see if you don't find a group to engage with people don't see the power! Let's keep the research going!

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Permalink Reply by Hans Feldmeier on June 13, 2007 at 9:45am

Hi Meg, I´m going to work on wikispaces, blogger, some other Web 2.0 tools like podomatic ...
I also use it within European projects with students and teachers like DigiSkills.
There must be a LMS or better a CMS like Moodle or Fronter (I prefer!).
Thus, at the moment, Ning is mostly social networking.
But I think - in one year or earlier - there are more possibilities to team up with wikis et cetera

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Permalink Reply by Meg Ormiston on June 13, 2007 at 2:19pm

Hans,
Thanks for the comments! I agree with you about the LMS, I have been working some with Moodle. There are a couple of reasons I am going to try NING with this class. This class is more informal, driven by teacher created projects around curriculum, so lots of people creating content. I am the facilatator, but lots of the learning is supporting each other, reflecting and responding. This participants also produce multimedia examples to share with the group, I am hoping to showcase that here and in second life (Meg Writer is my SL name). Also, one of my big goals is to keep the group connected after our face to face time is over, I will be teaching in a rural part of the state of Illinois, and I am trying to build capacity, developing these teachers as teacher leaders for the area, while I support them remotely.Lastly, I need to understand how to teach in a different way, enaging students in a different way, and recording the rich conversations for the future.
I love teaching this class, but I am a little on edge, rethinking my role and the assignments I give!
Wait! One more reason I am trying this, teachers can easily get started with NING, Moodle has issues for a classroom teacher, like installation. They do not have the tech capacity in this area or funding for hosting. Free is good, but I will find out if it is enough!
Stop back we can continue the conversation!

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