Thing #22- Nings

Another cool way to interface! I spent a good deal of time with the Nings, because I am now at the point of trying to differentiate between all of the communication and sharing tools that I have discovered, attempting to figure out "why this one for this activity rather than that one?". Hmmm. It's an effective platform for discussion between like-interested people, and a wonderful way to get ideas, opinions, solutions, and even, as I see from my reading, encouragement. Different perspectives usually help me clarify my thinking when I am stumped.

I particularly like that the Nings have different discussion topics or forums going on, and that you can find them easily. I also like that when you find the right Ning, the topics are of interest, since you presumably have joined that Ning because the people seem to be interested in the same areas that you are. You can introduce a topic for discussion, rather than putting it on your blog and hoping that someone will see it and comment. It's sort of like a huge multi-blog. And of course, many of them have pictures and videos submitted by members, too.

I see this as very helpful professionally (and very informative personally, with regards to hobbies and "extra-curricular interests"). I expect to garner quite a few ideas and suggestions from the other members, and who knows, I may find that I have something to share as well.

Thing #16- Wikis

There are so many possibilities with the wiki. I loved the different types that I looked at...wikis for resources, with pages to include links, booklists, curriculum ideas...the possibilities are endless. The Meredith Farkas article "Using Wikis to Create Online Communities" made an interesting point about wikis being "self-organizing group behavior in action." That is pretty cool.

I am thinking that in my music class a wiki might be useful to gather information on composers that we are studying, or to collect links to sites which might be useful, that I either recommend, or that the students have found and like.

I think that I posted to the Library 2.0 Sandbox. I posted to a Sandbox somewhere!

One thing that will be hard for me is the fact that someone could come in and change what I have written. I don't mind them adding on, but I am afraid that I will dislike having my actual words edited! I know, control freak, but a girl does take ownership of their writings. This is obviously a new concept that I will have to grapple with if I want to leap into the century with great abandon!