Moodle or a social network for school?

I am a high school student and I am comparing and contrasting Moodle and a social network I created on Ning. The Social Network I created is exclusively for students in my high school. I am experimenting to see if it would work better then Moodle. Trying to test to see what students would take to more and what would be more used and effective. If anyone has any feedback to what they think would work best?, If this is a good or bad idea? And what uses could benefit out of both?

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Comment by Lino Oliveira on January 16, 2009 at 1:54pm: Hi Skye!

I am doing research for my PhD to propose an integrated platform with a LMS (Moodle) and Web 2.0 applications (blogs, wikis, social networks).

For this reason I am very interested in your work.

I think that complete substitute a LMS with a social network it is not possible but they can complement each other. Moodle is stronger in class organization and assessment and social networks are stronger in social related stuff (profile, participation, socialization, etc.).

Please keep us informed about your work and results. Thanks.

Regards from Portugal

Lino Oliveira

http://www.linooliveira.com
http://web20pt.wordpress.com

Comment by Matthew Stark on January 17, 2009 at 3:05am: moodle is better for students management and test creation. Ning is good for discussion, but not so much for assessing students knowledge. I also think more teachers use moodle. This site has many moodle blog and discussion posts. I suggest spending a while going through this site.

Comment by Steven Greene on January 19, 2009 at 6:57am: Moodle is supported by my school district because it allows teachers to monitor all student activity. I had to convince the school board to allow limited access to Ning, but they do not like the fact that student-student messaging can not be monitored. There are still many fears that will control decision making, moodle "feels" safer.