Ning!

Today I created my own "class website" using Ning.com. It was surprisingly very easy to make, and also very easy to manage. I really like how everything is set up, its very organized and I think it would be very hard to mess it up. I think that Ning reminds me a lot of facebook, except its a lot more organized and offers more to me as a teacher. Facebook is great for socializing with your friends but Ning offers more, you can post forums in case you wanted to to have a classroom discussion in a different environment than the classroom. You can also add, like facebook, photos and videos which may also be helpful in a classroom so students can see visuals instead of just reading the text. I think that the events page would also be very helpful to me as a teacher because you can post the events that are coming up in your classroom and also events that are coming up in the school such as parent teacher conferences. I think that Ning is a great resource for both parents and students to use. The parents can check out and see what were doing in class and see when assignments are due and also see when important events are that they may want to attend. I also like how Ning can operate as an email system, and you can send out emails through it. This is helpful as a tool, you can get so many things knocked out through one website, such as blogging, communicating, emailing, posting important information and pictures. I definitely will use Ning one day in my own classroom, I think that ning.com has helped me a lot during this class now, and that it will also help me when I have to manage my own classroom!