What are blogs, wikis, and nings?

A blog or word blog is short for web log. It is basically a online journal or diary. It allows you to share your opinions, questions, and experiences. It could be used for advertising or simply just passing on information to the next person. Anyone can read them. Your most recent postings will be at the top with the oldest posts at the bottom. The good thing about a blog, is that it can be used by both teachers and students. You can share your opinions with other teachers to support one another with common questions and answers. You can create a class blog for your students as well. You can post class assignments and their due dates for your students to check daily. Students can also use the blog to research certain topics. The students will also be learning from each other. They will be giving their own interpretations on particular subjects. They will also learn how to respect other student's work. By blogging, they will also be improving their own writing skills.
A wiki is a little different from a blog. It is a combination of a website and a word document. The great thing about a wiki, is that groups of people can collectively work on the content of the site. People can make changes to a wiki page, and then the revision will become the current version. I think this could be great to use in education for group projects. Students could collectively compile their research into one report. I can also see teachers using wikis to work on projects together as well. This would really cut out a lot of wasted time. They would already see what the other teachers have researched, and then they could build onto that foundation.
A ning is a social network. It is similar to facebook and my space, yet a little different. You can join different nings for specific topics. For example, you could join a ning for teachers or a ning for music and so on...... Teachers can get advice from other teachers. If you were to use a ning in education, you could first create a network for your class. You could post educational games and projects for your students. You could also create on-line chats for your students for any questions they might have. You would need to control the settings and create rules for your students. For example, you could limit the chat times to one hour every night. If a student abuses any of these privileges, they will be removed from the site. Nings can be very useful in the classroom.