Thing 22

What a funny made-up word for an adult substitute for Facebook and MySpace. I don't know how people come up with all these names for things on the internet. Now I know that a "ning" is a social network where people can easily create networks around specific interests ; people like me with limited technical skills. I read the 3 nings suggested on the 23 Things site. The teacher ning is more relevant for me. However, there are slim pickens for Family and Consumer Science. I only found 2 for this area. One was from a person just finishing college and was needing assistance. I gave her my blog address because I have links she can use. At this time, there are about 220,000 networks out there. This can and is overwhelming but I think if you look for tags or clouds or enter specifics into the search bar, a ning can surely narrow down what you are searching for. I can see that a ning can be useful for students who might want to learn more about their school, teachers, curriculum, extra curricula activities, etc. from other students. I can also see that teachers from the ssme school or district could utilize this instead of email. A ning could be similar to a wiki in some ways. There are many alternatives on the "net" for communication with others. A negative might be that there are so many people to communicate with. I see how some people are on the computer a lot in their spare time. I think we have to be careful not to spend too much time doing this.