Ning: A Powerful Social Network for Learning

Social networking group is a kind of social software that people and share and exchanges ideas on specific interest or professionals. Ning is a good example of this.

Ning allows people to create their own free social networking site around any topics, complete with personal profiles, photos, videos, links, groups discussions, blogs and so on. Besides, a Ning site is totally contained. All the posting and sharing happens under the same roof. And the creator can decided who the participants are.

I think it is a great environment for both educators and learners. For learners, Ning provides them an opportunity to test out their writing skills in a communicative way by comments and interaction in between. Also, it can be a great place for students to present their works which could be a learning collection and resources on the Web. Take St. Joe H20 for example, it’s a Ning set by Sean Nash for his Marine Biology students. He not only built various conversations on the related subjects but also he invites experts to have dialogue with students, which activates the learning. According to Sean, the site becomes a living community and connects former and future students as well as a growing list of experts in the field. Therefore, the site enlarges the domain of learning. Also, by sharing pictures and video clips with peers and commenting and reflecting, the site forms a learning community that students believe they are belong to. Seam further addressed “Now my students never really “leave” our program; they are all just a click away from future interactions in a way that moves us together forward as a learning community” which impresses me a lot. I think the Ning not only enables students to learn deeper and wider, it also inspire students’ interest in learning, which is hard to achieve by a one-way communication between textbook, teacher and students.

For educators, Ning is equally useful because teaching resources are widely spread and easily attained; among them EFL CLASSROOM 2.0 is my favorite. There are forums that people discuss topics related to English teaching. People share all kind of teaching strategies and activities. People also share worksheets and ppt, which is so helpful.  People also ask questions related to English learning and teaching and other members would reply. I feel excited to see this website because it’s so great to share and learn from English teachers from all over the world.

Connectivism—The Changing Nature of Knowledge

     

      With the advance of technology, knowledge shift and grow within seconds which drives learners nowadays to change their way of learning. I think that a learner islike an ant which is a social insect. They cannot live alone just as the learners cannot learn and acquire knowledge outside the social network. The learning happens via constant sharing and receiving. Different ants have different jobs just as learners decide what kind of information to access according to their different interest and pursuits.

      According to George Siemens, connectivism believes “learning and knowledge rests in the diversity of opinions, and learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.” Therefore, it is important for us to enable learners to select the right information under the right context so that the learners can acquire the knowledge. Besides, he also contends that “the capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known.”(Siemens, 2005) Hence, we should equip learners the ability to form connection between related fields, ideas and concepts, from which they gain more assesses to the sources of knowledge. Furthermore, decision making ability is equally essential. To know how to make good choice for their intake of information, learners know how to reap more by investing less effort.

      According to the video THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON LEARNING, the speaker addressed that “social software such as blogs, flickers and wikis are developed in order to make people exchange information quickly and learn from each other.” It is the social needs that enable people to be connected them share and learn from each other. Via these social networks, people take it as a tool to self grow information and knowledge.

      I consider connectivism is an important concept for education. Under the context, we, as educators, are responsible for equipping students the ability to accommodate into these social software so that they process an effective tool to absorb information and learn from others. On the other hand, even some of our students are more advanced them us in using social software. Therefore, there would be no excuse for not using technology to enhance students’ learning.

Reference: Connectivism:A Learning Theory for the Digital Age by George Siemens