Social networking for languages teachers

[Jess McCulloch]

Hello everyone!

I hope this find you all well and thinking long and hard about your investigations. Don't forget to use this email list to access the trainers as well as the other participants. I've also put it out to the other states that their Stream B participants might like to join this email group, so hopefully it grows a bit.

Another thing I wanted to tell you about was the technoLanguages network that I have set up. Some of you may have already got an email and an invitation from me about it because you are on the technoLOTE discussion group, so apologies if you have read this before. Read below to find out what this is all about...

NING NETWORK – AN ONLINE COMMUNITY

A ‘ning’ is a place where you can set up a network around anything you like. It works in a very similar way to MySpace, Facebook and Bebo which I'm guessing many of you will be familiar with. (Imagine that - a social network for languages teacher! COOL!)

You sign up get your own profile page with a picture, find other people in the network, add them as friends, leave comments on their page. You can also do things like start and join discussion groups, add videos and add photos. The address for the network site is: http://technolanguages.ning.com

I thought it would be good to have a network like this where we can all actually ‘see’ each other. It's also a great way to get to know how to use another Web 2.0 tool that could be very valuable in your classroom. I've got two 'ning' networks set up for students this term.

So, go ahead, accept the invite that I sent, join up, set up your profile page, add your photo (or an avatar) and away you go!  the network is just starting up, but lots of discussions and videos, photos and groups will be added as more people join.  All you need to do is follow the prompts. If you get into the network  and it doesn't make much sense to you yet, please don't worry or get frightened away - I  intend to make a video tour of the site to show you how it works - just have to find a bit of spare time to do that. Just look for the links that let you 'Start a Discussion' 'Add a Video' etc and have a play around. You can't break anything, so it's better to just click on something and see what happens.

Remember that no matter what level you are at with technology or teaching, you have something very valuable to add that we would all be interested in knowing about. Yes, you do!

Hope to see you on the technoLanguages ning network soon! Just join by going straight to http://technolanguages.ning.com. Then look for the 'Sign Up' link in the top right hand corner.

P.S just email me if things really don't make sense. Happy to help!
P.P.S Nope, no room for nerves - just jump in and give it a go.

Remember - THERE'S NOTHING TO IT BUT TO DO IT! :-)

Jess.

P.P.P.S Get to work on those investigations!!! :-)