Using Ning for Book Study

I'm delighted to learn that ISTE's special interest group for teacher educators (SIGTE) has selected Reinventing Project-Based Learning as the focus of its 2008 book study group. They are using ning as the tool for building an online community. If you're interested in joining (or just watching how the conversation and community grow on a ning site), check out http://sigte2008.ning.com/
Might be some lessons worth learning here if you're thinking about using a literature circles or book study approach with your students and want to take advantage of social networking tools.

Tags: bookstudy, pbl, socialnetworking

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Permalink Reply by Jane Krauss on February 18, 2008 at 12:41pm

Not to cal; attention away from a terrific book ;>) but... A group of educators has started another kind of book group using Twitter with wiki support. The group is reading "Last Child in the Woods - Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder". This wiki describes how the group operates: http://twitterbookgroup.wikispaces.com/#tochome4 and here's a statement from the wiki on the value of shared book reading using Twitter:
Advantages of a Twitter Bookgroup
* Being able to effectively synopsis your thoughts in 140 characters requires higher order thinking
* It is is more inclusive of those with lower bandwidth capabilities or do not have computers (they can use cell phones)
* Contributions can be made "on the go" (via cell phone)
* It would potentially allow a greater number of people to participate
* It could encourage participants to read off line.
* It will further the growth of the Twitter network.
* An excellent experiment on the potential use of Twitter in education