Unsure About Social Networking

I am officially a member of two, yes 2, social networking sites now. However, I am not totally convinced about the educational implications in regards to using them with my students. After reading about MySpace, Facebook, and Ning, I feel a little more comfortable with Ning since it is more used by educators. I like the fact that your profile can be public or private and administrators can sensor the content that their students let others view. Additionally, the fact that Ning doesn't require a lot of personal information to get started makes it more attractive to me. I personally can't see using it with my students mainly because I don't have my own classroom. I work with small groups for 30-45 minutes at a time, with those groups constantly changing and sometimes being cancelled without notice. I also don't think parents would be keen on the idea of their child using a social networking site without their constant supervision, like when they're at school. That being said, I absolutely think its a great idea to communicate with students using other media tools that are available. For example, I really want to try Gaggle, although time will still be an issue. I'll let you know how my students feel about it. In the meantime, my Ning address is : lheffner.ning.com and you can also find me on Facebook under the Appalachian network.

Digital Book

I finished my digital book, Seeing the World with Different Eyes. I had fun making it and my students had a great time helping with pictures and recording the text. I would like do this again, but this time let my students compose a book by themselves. I know it would take some time, but it would be worth it to see the joy it would bring to their educational experiences. Usually, just going to the computer lab makes them excited.
Putting this book together was not a chore and I will definitely do it again. I am actually working on a prent brochure that I am going to make digital. Then I will post it on our schools website so parents can view it at their convenince. Click on the link to the left under "My Assignments" if you would like to see my book. It is short and sweet. Hope you enjoy it!