Ning

Ning is a website where anyone can be part of creating their own social networking site. You can either join a group that shares worldwide interests online. It is very interesting because it provides the opportunity to meet new people or set up a place to help in your classroom. There are so many features that can be used in a classroom. For example, Ning provides a text box where you can post weekly columns or short lessons. You can also upload pictures and videos, chat with members of your network, group discussion, and enable blogging for every member. One of the options that I believe is very helpful is that you can join other Ning networks in order to share ideas. And, if you want to create a group just for your class you can set it up to be private and invite your students to join the group.
As I went through the Ning site, some ideas came to mind for my future classroom; assignments, projects, vocabulary words to work on at home, student-teacher and student-student communication.
I created my own social networking site where I included a short lesson about learning Spanish, where I can eventually upload some videos that help to practice Spanish. There is a lot of potential.
Visit http://www.ning.com/ to register yourself and start your own site. Make sure you take a look at my Ning network at http://espanishlearners.ning.com/ to take a look at what could possibly be a tool in your classroom.
My network is called Spanish as a Second Language and the web name stands for electronic Spanish learners. Hopefully, in the future, my students will be able to go and use it as another resource.