Thanks for sharing this information.

I would be great if you share it on passionate teachers ning also.

Thanks

Students are required to give a reason why they are joining the site, some of which are listed here.

Using online social media to engage students
Presented by Simon Brown, SkillsTech Australia stonemasonry teacher.

I’d like to introduce you to how we’re using Ning, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube to build an online learning community.
This is not a shopping list of Web 2.0 sites, merely four online tools that I’m using to connect with my students.
After I’ve showed you what we’re doing, I will ask you a few questions about your views.

Why build an online social network?
My students are spread geographically, and I want to maintain contact between block-release classes at TAFE.
I also want students to learn how to present themselves online in a global context.
Doing this gives students a chance to collaborate with each other, maintaining their own network and extending it around Australia and to other countries.

The World Wide Web was chosen because of a need to operate outside the TAFE Queensland student network. Many new and exciting technologies are available for use in an educational setting.

Ning social networks at http://ning.com
Ning is the only online service where you can create, customize, and share your own Social Network for free in seconds.

Twitter: elegant instant messaging at http://twitter.com
Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

Flickr at http://flickr.com - almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world - has two main goals:
1. We want to help people make their photos available to the people who matter to them.
2. We want to enable new ways of organizing photos.

YouTube at http://youtube.com
Founded in February 2005, YouTube is the leader in online video, and the premier destination to watch and share original videos worldwide through a Web experience. YouTube allows people to easily upload and share video clips on www.YouTube.com and across the Internet through websites, mobile devices, blogs, and email.

At SkillsTech Australia, useful online social web applications are aggregated at http://stomas.ning.com.

Additionally, we use:
Delicious social bookmarking at http://del.icio.us/stonemasonry Delicious allows access to bookmaked websites used in the classroom
Blogspot at http://simon-brown.blogspot.com/
30Boxes calendar at http://30boxes.com/user/162161/SimonBrown
Gmail web based email
Flock social Internet browser

Researching social networks as a means of engaging and communicating with students, I found that MySpace and Facebook, although extremely popular, were too widely focused, and not easily customisable.
Ning features strong visual elements in an uncluttered user interface. Customising the profile questions focused the domain to a work context, while leaving room for a personal touch.
Ning allows a limited number of widgets so that other applications can be embedded at the site.

Taking liberties with words provided a small dose of humour. Students ‘don’t mind’ that ‘their’ trade sector title is a little distorted!

The stonemasonry ning is a place for students to meet and share information about themselves in both work and personal contexts. The home page features tabbed browsing and 2-pane setting for widgets. A widget is a ‘web object’ or a chunk of HTML code embedded in the page. Widgets are customisable by the network administrator.
Members’ avatars (avatar = thumbnail image that represents the member) are prominently displayed, providing a sense of ownership.
The Voki avatar introduces the site with a spoken message when activated with a mouse click. She reads the txt sms message at the top of the page and guides usage of the browsing tabs.

This is what the stonemasonry ning looks like ‘behind the scenes’.
The site description is contained in the top pane.
The right hand pane contains advertising and is not editable.
The left pane has smaller widgets such as RSS feeds and text boxes.
The middle pane has larger widgets containing members’ avatars, and photo and video displays.

Students are sorted into groups to give a greater sense of membership. The groups are named after Australian natural dimension stones used in the stone trade: Ariah Park Beige; Sydney Green; Verde Marinachi; Grandee.
An embedded slideshow features photos from Andrew L. Petrie. Building and Monumental Masons at Toowong in 1980.
A forum lists topics and invites discussion.
The ‘gadget’ at the left of this page embeds a Sony Walkman video game on my personal profile page.

The ClustrMap shows who is looking at the stonemasonry ning around the world. The current view shows visitors from every continent.
Students know that what they post to this site is viewable not just by each other, but also by their current employers, future employers and employees and colleagues. It is effectively their e-portfolio.

Blog posts update happenings such as changing times and dates, recent additions to classroom & workshop, and the national training package review status.

The music player widget has some popular tunes.

My Flickr online photo account feeds into the Flickr widget – photos taken in the classroom and workshop can be uploaded into Flickr, and displayed at the stonemasonry ning within minutes.

Stonemasonry YouTube videos feed into the left sidebar widget.
This recent blog posting features a stonemasonry apprentice receiving a Mark Master Masons Outstanding Apprentice award.
The photo viewer in the centre pane shows images posted to the site. Often they are work photos.

However students like to post personal images too. This one shows one apprentice’s boat.
Twitter feeds into the left sidebar widget.
An embedded slideshow features some personal photos of a French medieval castle under construction.

Signing up for a Ning account: students must have an email address. Approximately 20% of students do not use email to communicate because they don’t own a computer, and prior to joining the stonemasonry ning, don’t have a need to communicate this way. About 10% of students do not own a mobile phone either. Affordability is one important reason for this, another is not identifying with ‘geeks’ or technologically competent people.

Belonging to the stonemasonry ning network gives students a reason to communicate using online media, building their competence in this area.

Signing up for a stomas.ning account.

All fields are set as compulsory. Students are required to tell a little personal information, as well as identifying their work contexts. This helps the community get to know its members.
Fields are editable after joining, so that changes can be updated.

About me…

Twitter microblogging: Answer the question (in 140 characters or less): What are you doing?

This is my personal Twitter timeline (with others). It shows updates listed in a reverse chronology (most recent at the top).
My followers and followees are in the right pane. All of my followers receive my updates.

My Twitter archive.

Jake’s Twitter page.

John’s Twitter page

Anthony’s Twitter page

Joel’s Twitter page

Chris’s Twitter page

The SkillsTech Australia student counsellor uses Twitter to start a dialogue with students.

Everybody’s Twitter profile lists some personal information about them.

Flickr photo sharing.

My personal photo archive is useful for sharing images.
This page lists my online photo albums (sets)

Classroom and workshop activities are displayed as soon as the images are uploaded.

Images are ‘tagged’ with metadata that allow searching in the Flickr collections.

Images are also located on a map.

Stonemasonry videoclips at YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=0ds0k

Classroom and workshop instructional videos, are uploaded to YouTube and then embedded at stomas.ning.com