Sunday, November 18, 2007

class social networks: thoughts?

Last night I made a major decision to move my discussion board for my Theater class from wikispaces to a new page I created on ning. Don't get me wrong, I think wikispaces is a truly great thing; the possibilities are limitless, but the truth is that it really doesn't serve our needs at this moment (maybe one day soon it will?). I don't currently have plans to have my students make pages on the wiki, nor do I have the time to shift my entire online presence for the class from my blogger blog (where i's been living for about four years) to the wiki site. As for the discussion board, which was the only feature I was really using: I felt that the setup was far too limiting and there weren't enough management options for me as the moderator. I had also seen it get to the point where the initial novelty had worn off, and the students were no longer as inclined to post as they had been.
So, I found that the whole concept of an online social network for the students in the class was much more appealing, and I could do a lot more with the page as well as manage the forums more effectively. The notion of being able to create a profile and add pics, music and video (like facebook) seemed to be much more appealing to students, so I thought I'd give it a go. The hardest part now, I'm sure, will be actually getting everyone to sign up...

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