Shine Magazine, Issue 3, April 2010 - Department of Education and ...

OPINIon
Briony Heneberry
So what’s a ning
anyway?
No idea what a ning is? Keep reading.
Facebook, MSN, MySpace… Kids may
not be watching The 7:30 Report, but
they are plugging into the worldwide
web every other afternoon and evening.
They’re watching and uploading to
Youtube, participating in online forums,
electronically investigating the lives of
people in other countries and broadcasting
themselves for the world to see. They are
truly digital natives.
As educators, we have to acknowledge that
a large part of a student’s life doesn’t exist
in the physical sense, and if their education
is to accurately reflect their world, we need
to meet them in it. This is why I like nings.
There are difficulties and dangers
associated with using Facebook and
MySpace in schools, not least of which
include the fact that by default these social
networking sites are blocked by the state’s
internet service provider, Netspace. The
appeal of these types of sites to young
people, however, is undeniable, and nings
are a happy medium between the engaging
online format that students love and the
security of a closed community that satisfies
both schools and parents.
“I couldn’t be happier
with the way my
students have treated
the intellectual property
of their peers.”
But what exactly is a ning? A ning is
a customisable social platform, that
allows administrators to quickly and
easily create an attractive and interactive
online community. Not overloaded with
complicated elements that might make
setup and maintenance more trouble than
its worth, nings have WYSIWYG (what you
see is what you get) controls that let you
add, remove and edit functions quickly, and
privacy settings that plainly outline who
can view your community and make posts.
So, in preparation for the 2010 school
year and my new creative writing elective
for Year 9s, I created a ning that includes
blog functions, a forum, and the ability
to upload videos, music and pictures. It
was surprisingly easy to customise and
required no knowledge of ccS or html code
(although for advanced customisation this
is beneficial).
I sent out email invitations to all of my
students a week before the commencement
34 Shine APRIL 2010