#22 Nings

Oh my goodness, I could spend days exploring all the things in Ning! Oh no, I'm rhyming again. Of course I gravitate to all things Kindergarten. In the Teacher Lingo Ning I found this blog post from a blog entitled "Look at My Happy Rainbow" My journey as a male Kindergarten teacher. It really hit home that as teachers we have so much influence over our student's lives. At times we are the center of their world. What a huge responsibility!

I joined Kindergarten Teachers Ning to give it a try. Kindergarten is its own little world and I love the idea of being able to network with other teachers about my profession. I also like the fact that you can add your blog to the site. It's a great way to find interesting blogs to follow.

A absolutely love the Teacher Librarian Ning! The forum is so helpful. I love reading about librarians helping librarians. I've noticed that they are asking questions similar to questions I've been having. For instance, there was a post entitled Copyright discussion on photos (images) in Web 2.0 tools about where to put the attribution when using an image from Flickr Creative Commons. I've always wondered that myself as I've been using images from the sight in creating glogs and photo stories.

All in all, I thing Nings can not only be helpful in professional development but also in the classroom and library. Teachers can create a Ning to use as a collaborative learning environment. Students can join and post videos, websites, pictures that they find about a particular subject. Discussion forums can also be created. The fact that Nings can be private means it's a safe environment for learning. Librarians can create a Ning around a book club and facilitate discussion forums. What a wonderful tool!