Create a Social Network on the fly…Gorilla Session?
Well, after a bit of discussion, and a bit of structure, the Gorilla sessions are a go. They won’t be nearly as spontaneous and impromptu as they were envisioned, which is a little unfortunate, but I had a flash of an idea for a Gorilla session about the new social networking tool called Ning. I can’t take credit for finding Ning, as I’ve been reading about it over on Steve Dembo’s blog, Teach42. Steve by the way will be giving some awesome presentations this year, so make sure to check one of them out.
Imagine having the ability to quickly, and easily, set up your very own social network complete with blogging, forums, tagging, and full customization of how it looks and works. Ning has all the social and collaborative aspects of MySpace, but provides all of the controls, moderation, and privacy that an educator might need to use in lots of different school settings. I’m considering getting some time in the Gorilla sessions room to talk about how how engaging your very own classroom-branded social network would be for students. A homework help network, focused study groups, or a student created resource and research site are just a few of the possibilities.
2 Responses to “Create a Social Network on the fly…Gorilla Session?”
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March 9th, 2007 at 10:08 am
So now “Flash-Sessions”? I kinda had this vision of 20-30 people all of a sudden turning some random set of tables into an impromptu session, like a flash mob
That’s alright, a Gorilla session about social networking in the classroom works for me. I’d actually be very interested (and think the people who make sites like Ning would be too) in creating a solid mind-map of what would make the perfect site to teach students about social networking.
March 9th, 2007 at 11:26 am
Now Flash Session are a nice name, Steve. Perhaps we’ll think about it in the future, although at an Ed Tech conference a Flash Session could easily be misinterpretted as a presentation on using Adobe Flash
You should definitely hunt down the Gorilla Session room (Room O3-46) during the conference to see what’s going on. It’s a new idea this year, for those who are inspired by something they see at the conference, or couldn’t present on because it’s so new, to form an impormptu session. I really had hoped they would have kept the Guerrilla name, as that signififed to me something going on “behind the scenes” so to speak of the conference, but Gorilla is what the consensus was.