Thing 6: The Ning Thing

I'll admit that at first I didn't really know what to make of nings.  On the one hand, I like the social networking framework - it is familiar to me, and helps establish the feel of a sort of grass roots online community.  One of the best examples of this I can think of is the pre-service and practicing teachers who formed a group to discuss literacy instruction within the Web 2.0 ning.  In a couple different classes I took during my certification work, I was asked to write letters to practicing teachers, and they responded, eventually.  The exercise was a very valuable one, but a bit frustrating as well - a professor assigned the letters to us in the class, we submitted it a week later, the letters were delivered shortly thereafter, we waited for teachers (admittedly, a very busy bunch) to write back and return their own letters to the professor, and waited again for our professors to distribute the letters to us.  By the time the cycle was complete, weeks had elapsed, and often, the questions asked were no longer relevant, pressing or interesting to us.  The accessibility and immediacy afforded by the online group is impressive, and makes the exchange that much more meaningful.

On the other hand, I also got the impression that the nings operate as little more than a fancy sort of meta-search engine, whose primary value is to connect people with similar interests so they can provide referrals to existing content.  Helpful referrals, sure, but I didn't see a whole lot of original content... 

UNTIL I found the English Companion Ning.  I'm in love.  Here's a group of people asking and answering the very questions I revisit over and over again in my career.  The original content is their dialogue, and it's helpful.  The site is organized well, and thus far I haven't found too many vacuous or vapid posters.  What I have found are some concrete ideas and suggestions for summer reading texts (something I'm struggling with at the moment) and cool lesson plan ideas for my Walt Whitman unit.

This might render an even bigger improvement to my life than my shiny new food processor.