What I would like to see on Ning

I have been using Ning for the past few weeks or so. The only tool that I use is this one, the forums. I have been playing with the Chatterwall on my page and on others. I am not sure of the friend request. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of benefit to it. The search function makes no sense. I searched for "Christopher Potter" and it said I wasn't a member. I searched for "mrpotter" and I miraculously appeared as a member. Why not be able to search for either one? I may be going crazy, but I thought I was able to edit my page here. I want to rearrange some pieces on my page and delete others and I can't seem to find the option to do it. It isn't logically obvious to me. I thought we could do that last week, I may be wrong on that. I am a member of a few different SN on Ning. Why do I have to keep entering a biography, etc.? It has been said before, but I'll throw it on here. Feedreaders do not differentiate between a new discussion and a new comment.

Now, why am I still here and asking you to be my amigo? Because I think there is a ton of potential here. The forum alone has provided me the opportunity to discuss with topics with teachers from around the globe. Where else can I find something like that? Some things I'd like to see: A tagging system that shows me when a new topic/tag that I am interested in. A "watch" system that shows me when a friend or someone I enjoy reading has posted a new discussion or a new comment. This would make the friend function a little more useful. Drag and drop on the different sections of the my page section would be great too. Basically I'd like a combination of Newsvine.com and Netvibes.com

Please add any ideas you have below and maybe it will give the powers that be some ideas.

Tags: classroom2.0, ning, technology

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Permalink Reply by Sharon Peters on April 17, 2007 at 4:15pm

You have some awesome ideas - I agree, we need a way to seamlessly connect with many ideas and people in a shared environment. This social networking stuff has some powerful potential. It will be interesting in the coming months and years to see mashups evolve as we discover the power of shared connections. Sharon Peters

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Permalink Reply by SusanTsairi on April 18, 2007 at 2:28am

I too would like to be able to rearrange my page preferrably using drag and drop. Bookmarks: I haven't found a particular place on this network where we can share and tag bookmarks - I'm sure that the members here have much to share in that area too and neither the blog or the forum seem to be the ideal tool for it.
As far as the friends system goes, I agree with your comment.
I'm not exactly sure what the chatter box is - maybe there should be a page which explains the functions of the different tools.
One other thing that seems to be lacking in the ning environment is a cooperative editing tool, something similar to a wiki, or shared documents.
Susan

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Permalink Reply by Hans Feldmeier on April 18, 2007 at 6:49am

Hi Chris, yes I agree as to your complaining. Generally, it´s good to be in a community. But otherwise, Ning have to improve something very soon, because Web 2.0 communities are growing fast and every day. I´m missing a suitable feature: wiki or e-journal to publish articles on a topic .. and more what you have mentioned.
But thanks to Steve, he was talking to Gina - Co-founder of Ning. And she told us, that there are a few steps planned to improve Ning next weeks.

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Permalink Reply by Susan Sedro on April 18, 2007 at 6:36pm

There is the blog feature so you could publish articles, just not collaborative essays.

I agree with all these comments about Ning. It is clearly in beta. It frustrates me because my Moodle is more stable, has more collaborative tools in it. However, it has great potential. I hope it grows into it.

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Permalink Reply by Gina Bianchini on April 30, 2007 at 4:38pm

Thanks, Susan!

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Permalink Reply by Gina Bianchini on April 30, 2007 at 4:38pm

Hey Hans!

Adding wiki pages is a project we're planning around the beginning of June.

Thanks!

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Permalink Reply by Pam Shoemaker on April 18, 2007 at 8:41pm

Hi Chris,
I agree that the discussion forums seems to be the most useful feature of Ning (or maybe I just haven't yet figured it out.) I also like seeing the videos that are being shared. I still haven't figured out what I should put on my Ning page vs my regular blog.
Pam

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Permalink Reply by Cyndi Danner-Kuhn on April 29, 2007 at 10:46am

I have another blog too, but no traffic, so at least when I want to really have a discussion, this seems to be generating it. Guess my actual blog might now become my personal ranting and thoughts, etc. Not sure, but a link to my Classroom 2.0 page will be added to my website in the next day or two.

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Permalink Reply by ddlion on April 19, 2007 at 12:29am

I agree that the discussion forums are the most useful of Ning. I also use only forum.
Only the forum makes me share idea and make new friends. That's the reason why I am in Ning.

Kate

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Permalink Reply by Teacher K on April 22, 2007 at 3:48pm

When adding tags to things, it would be useful to be able to see a list of the other tags that people use. It is currently hard to determine what the acceptable terminology for any given topic might be.