Thing 22: Nings

I viewed several Nings including the Teacher Librarian ning at http://teacherlibrarian.ning.com/ and the Texas School Librarian ning at http://txschoollibrarians.ning.com/

Nings are beneficial social networking tools similar to Twitter, My Space, and Facebook. The main educational benefit of a ning is that teachers can set these up for their students to use rather than invading their privacy by trying to carry on academic discussions on Facebook, which is considered a more private forum.

I can see how it would be very helpful to set up a ning for all librarians in my district. They could collaborate on lesson ideas, ask questions, and offer advice. Similarly, it would be helpful to set up school nings for all staff, or nings for each grade level. These tools have made collaboration so much easier without the need to sit through long meetings face to face.