e.

extensions of the 21st century classroom:

Digital Classrooms Via Ning; Or,

Ning-like Platforms

Electronic and digital platforms, such as Ning or Google Sites, extend the twenty-first century classroom. Ning was a popular, free online platform, launched in 2005 that allowed many educators to create classroom networks. "Ning was co-founded by Marc Andreessen and Gina Bianchini. Ning is Andreessen's third company (after Netscape and Opsware)," according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning. Beginning in July 2010, however, Ning controversially became a fee-based service.

In October of 2004, Gina Bianchini and Marc Andreesen began development of the Ning Platform. The Ning Platform grew over the next three years and by the end of 2007 there were 144,000 Ning Networks in existence. To date there are “more than 2 million Ning Netwroks created and 43 million registered users.” Nings, like Myspace or Facebook, bring millions of people together “to explore and express their interests, discover, new passions, and meet new people around shared pursuits” (http://about.ning.com/press/history.php/).

Nings can be used for educational purposes and serve as an online classroom, which is an extension of the traditional classroom. While enrolled in E632 - Professional Concerns: Teaching & Learning in the Digital Age at Colorado State University in the fall of 2009, I was introduced to a Ning Platform. Dr. Cindy O’Donnell-Allen, Associate Professor of English at Colorado State University, used a Ning to conduct class business, hold online forums, and even conduct a class session. I learned how to use the Ning technology for my own purposes for the two major projects for the course. A fellow graduate student and I designed a Ning for an investigation into fan fiction, another form of new literacies. Unfortunately, the dictionary could not be hosted for free by Ning due to their changes to their once free policy.

The Ning Platform in O'Donnell-Allen's class proved to be an effective way to afford the space to bridge the gap between the physical, face-to-face classroom and what students could accomplish from other locations. The Ning provided a way for students to communicate or “interface” with the content of the course, their instructor and other classmates at any time, given a computer and an Internet connection. Nings have allowed instructors to create classrooms that are not dictated by a bell on the wall of a building. These Nings afford discovery and learning to occur beyond the classroom environment.

The extension of the face-to-face classroom will be an important literacy for teachers of the twenty-first century, whether using Ning, Google Sites, or another online platform. Twenty-first teachers will be required to reach twenty-first century learners. Nings are one way to revolutionize literacy in the classroom: other options are available. The online class meeting that O’Donnell-Allen held within the “chat” function on the Ning platform supplies evidence for how learning can take on new shapes. A couple of students, who were introspective and less talkative in the face-to-face graduate discussions at the university, were active, dominant players in the Ning chat.

The Ning chat posed some challenges, such as typing and text delays, the confusion of simultaneous conversations, and important contributions to the discussion sometimes got lost in the shuffle. However, the participants of the class all did their best to address these concerns by acknowledging them and attempting to be as conscientious of the others in the chat as possible. Discussion "norms" and/or ground rules would be necessary for an instructor to establish and engage with students in a Ning chat or online chat room discussion. Admittedly, it was refreshing to hear some of the quieter voices in the class “speak up” in the chat. Chats on the Ning are unfortunately not automatically saved, but neither are live, face-to-face classroom discussions. However, by cutting and pasting before exiting the chat a participant can document and save what was said for future reference.

Time will tell if Nings become common among teachers in their various courses and the newly implemented fee alters the allure for many teachers. Nevertheless, encouraging students to interact and “interface” with a space that goes beyond the limited time available in an “official” class meeting only seems to possess positive ramifications. Negative ramifications may arise within an online space, such as students not being civil and respectful. These kinds of issues must be addressed and stopped immediately by the instructor or facilitator of the course. Since a Ning platform is an extension of the face-to-face classroom all policies of civility and respect expected in a face-to-face interaction theoretically would apply on an educational Ning platform.

Social networking sites (Facebook and Myspace) have taken the world by storm. Students of all grade levels are now discovering how to compose using texts of many modes with people across the planet. It only makes sense to take the principles used for nonacademic purposes and use these principles within the academic arena. Many students already know how to set up a user name and password, post alphabetic text, post images, and communicate in chats and forums. Therefore, teachers might consider capitalizing on this opportunity to tap into the prior knowledge of their students and align their classrooms to function effectively in a digital age. Now that there's a price tag attached to the Ning platform, Google Sites was chosen as an alternative to present this dictionary as a Master’s project. Google Sites, in many ways, is proving to be clearer and more cohesive for the purposes of A New Literacies Dictionary.