So, I have moved back to Ning ...Despite hearing from the Grou.ps head guy on my prior post about technology, I have not been able to get my front page reactivated. I also found last semester that grou.ps doesn't thread replies to conversations, and that just does not work as well as having replies linked to the original comment.
So, Pearson has accepted my Ning, and I am working under limited abilities. I still love the overall functionality of Ning better than anything else I have been able to find, but the limits to educational Nings are just frustrating. My latest question with Ning is why do I HAVE to approve all blog posts on a private, educational ning? I want students to read each others' posts and comment ... so I have found myself constantly checking if there are new posts to approve just to force a kind of natural flow. Sigh ...
On the upside, I have a wonderful new Virginia Tech graduate student, Meg Dixon, working with my students in the Ning, under the capable supervision of Katie Dredger. I am excited to be able, through my ODU program, to study and write about this collaborative work I have done with Virginia Tech for two years. I have found so many benefits to having my students branching out and working at a true college level with Tech's college mentors, and I am excited to really pin down what all is happening. One of the things I hope to research through this project is Google Sites as a possible alternative to Ning. if anyone has any input on this, I would love to hear it.
The absolute best platform is Ning...but I can't afford it. I've tried Google Sites, but it's really not as versatile (or fun). Playing around with http://wecollaborize.com/classroom.html right now to see if student input and sharing is any more dynamic.
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