Thing #22 Nings

I had heard of Nings, but didn't know exactly what they were. Now I do! When checking out the Texas School Librarian Ning, I found a subgroup for High School Librarians. It is small with only nine members, but I can see how one could get support and ideas by interacting with these fellow librarians.

As I learned from 7 Things You Should Know About...Ning, educators can learn about social networks in a safe environment away from MySpace and Facebook and keep up with what our kids are so familiar with. I like the idea of creating projects for a course within Ning. The students would enjoy the format and interaction. For library use, I am thinking of creating a book club. My students have such difficulty getting to school early or staying after school because most of them ride the bus, so a book club ning would let us discuss books, post pictures, and have fun! I may create a ning for the club I sponsor so that we can share dates, announcements, and get to know each other. Last year's president would put announcements on her Facebook account, but I would prefer having a place specifically for the club and be able to monitor it and contribute to it. (I wasn't invited to be a friend on her Facebook account!)

What I did find alarming is the number of surprises I found when searching for nings. I did a search for "Navy wives" which I thought was an innocent search term and, oops, some interesting things appeared. As if the name of the ning, "Nude Wives/Girlfriends", wasn't descriptive enough, there was a photo beside it! As with all Internet searching, ning.com must be approached with care.