Practicing Connectivism Through Social Networking

I recently visited http://www.ning.com/ (a social networking site) for the first time, and was surprised to see that you can pretty much create a social network for anything...until now the only 'social network' I had ever heard of is Facebook, and I don't see how one would utilize that particular network, at least not for professional development.

One of the networks I visited is called Classroom 2.0. I was impressed to see their number of members is in the tens of thousands. And their members come from all parts of the world, not just the United States, which is great for gaining insight into educational systems different from our own. The site is updated constantly, with members posting news or comments, or bits of helpful information by the hour. This is one of the reasons why Classroom 2.0 will be helpful to me, as there is a constant stream of information for me to absorb. Also, this group is very welcoming to new members and "beginners" like me! There is a section of "tools" which provides links to topics covering blogging, wikis, social bookmarking, podcasting, photo sharing, and probably anything else I could ever ask for!

Classroom 2.0 also won an edublog award (2007) for best use of a social networking service.


See for yourself! http://www.classroom20.com/