Mod4-2: A Facebook-like teaching tool...ahhhhh!!!

While reading about Ning in our text my blood literally starting pumping.  My brain started buzzing just thinking of all the ways it could be used.  I, like many other people, am quite addicted to FB, and just thinking that there is something out there that can be used professionally is simply EXCITING(for lack of a more appropriate term, you will see this word a lot in this posting)! 


I did a few searches and clicked on the ones which had a decent amount of members (100+).  I found a 

few accounts which sounded really interesting, but kept running into roadblocks like the site was inactive or it was being re-modeled or it was private.  So I spent a good amount of time on two sites which are very popular and FULL of exciting information.


The first is classroom20.  With over 50,000 members you are guaranteed some sort of activity to be happening.  This Ning site is "social network for those interested in Web 2.0 and Social Media in education".  The site has a very familiar feeling to which made it easy to navigate.  They have a group feature which focuses on special interests.  One group that caught my eye was "cell phones in education", how exciting is that?! I read through some of the postings, and was thrilled to see how some schools have already implemented the usage of phones into students everyday learning.  There is also a post about the discipline in the school, and the steps they take if students abuse their privilege.  I only took a few minutes to view Classroom 20 but what I did se made me excited to be a future educator during this time.  This site alone made me feel as if implementing technology into the classroom is completely do-able, and is ALREADY being done... EXCITING!


The second site I checked out was eflclassroom2.0.  I also spent some time checking this site out and was once again excited.  I found a forum on teaching and stereotypes.  There were a lot of interesting discussions going on and some interesting links worth spending your time on checking out.  This site also has a large amount of members, although it seems like there is one main person who is doing most of the contributing, while the other members are  participating by adding information and thoughts to the main idea.  The layout of this network was much more busy than what I am use to, however, it had plenty of links which could bring you to other social networks to keep completely connected. 


WOW! talk about a new world opened up! This is SO EXCITING.  I am really looking forward to using this on a daily basis... it gets my brain thinking and excited about surfing the net... unlike FB...which now, seems... kinda boring.