This document describes how social networks called Nings can be used for language and culture learning. Nings allow users to create customized social networks with menus, pages, discussion boards, blogs and other elements. Examples show how students in language courses used Nings to communicate through discussion boards and personal pages, share photos and videos related to course content, write blog posts and comment on each other's work. While similar to other platforms, Nings provide unique customizable elements called "blocks" that can embed outside content. Student feedback found multimedia sharing and forums most useful, though forums were also the most disliked. Overall, Nings engage students in interactive language and culture learning through collaborative and personalized activities.

1. Social Networking with Nings for Language and Culture PilarMunday Sacred Heart University Fairfield, CT

2. What are they? What are the elements that make them unique/different? Examples of “pages” Examples of “blocks” Students’ Comments about NING

3. What are they?

4. Ning is a platform that allows anyone to easily create social networks Specific characteristics of nings help students meet the learning objectives of language proficiency, intercultural effectiveness, and life-long learning in their courses There are other platforms very similar to nings that can also be used for these purposes, such as GROU.PS, Grouply or SocialGo.

5. What are the elements that make them unique/different?

6. Menu: You can add any elements Building blocks that you can customize and move around This an example from GROU.PS

7. This is an example from NING for an Advanced Spanish and Composition Course

9. Portal created with Mixxt for a high school English class in Spain

10. Examples of “pages”

11. Personal Page Students create their personal spaces, with custom templates, with their own images and narratives.

12. It permits easy communication among students Students from the US ask a student from Spain if they can talk to her through Skype and write messages on her “wal’’ in her personal page

13. Photos Page In this case, students were reviewing vocabulary related to furniture and home items.

14. Students can personalize their learning

15. Discussion boards In an easy way, students in the same class help each other pick a topic for a composition

16. In another one of my NING, (exchange program with Spain) the discussion boards were divided into two groups: “Serious” boards, where only teachers were allowed to post topics and “not so serious” discussion boards, open to the students:

17. Here are some examples of the “serious” boards. They dealt with topics seen in class, such as the ones seen here: What is your country for you? The movie, “The Official Story” The Dirty War and the Disappeared Stereotypes Pre-Columbian civilizations

18. But they can also choose the discussion topics themselves, by creating their own fora, in the “not so serious” boards. In this case, some were only in Spanish, some were only in English, so students could have the chance to read “correct” versions of the language they were learning.

19. Multimedia is easily embeddable in the discussion board (or blog) posts. In this case, students were asked to look for an image about Cuba that showed what the text they had read in class said about that country.

20. Blogs Through their blog posts, students can develop creative writing skills. In this example, students are free to chose the topics they want to write about. They then send the draft to me and they post the corrected version.

21. Students have to comment on other students' posts. Although the grammar in the comments is not corrected, students have a chance to express their views.

22. Here we have an example of a YouTube video embedded in a blog post. For this activity, students had to describe in their blogs ways they practiced Spanish outside of class (informal learning)

23. Other Pages You can add up to 2 more pages in NING Mini, more in other platforms. Here’s is something new that NING has, a Quiz Page, where students can review any grammar/vocabulary and check their results against other students

24. Other Pages In most platforms (including NINGs) you can add “blank” pages that you can also fill with any content from the web. Here, we have an example of a MUSIC/PLAYLIST page. Each student had to select two songs to explain to their classmates. The songs were then uploaded into the website playlist.com and later embedded into our class platform.

25. Although this is not part of the platform itself, we can see that you can use many websites and still integrate them into your class platform through embedding. In this case: Create a playlist Add songs (or ask students to add them) Configure your player Embed in your ning!!

26. Other PagesNing also has some Apps that can be added as pages (you can add 2 in NING mini)

27. Here are some more Apps that can be useful in the language class Calendar Docs Mail Planner

28. Here is the App NewsShare that allows students to collect web links used in my class.

29. Another App is BlogTalk Radio: You or your students can have their own radio programs, where listeners can call in to ask questions. The “episodes” can be downloaded or heard at a later time.

30. Examples of “blocks”

31. “Blocks” (on main page or sometimes in personal pages) can be filled with any existing “widget,” HTML objects, or even your own text or pictures

32. Many websites allow anyone to “embed” their content as “widgets” in these types of platforms

33. Students can ‘showcase” their work in their pages

34. You can also add an RSS feed from any publication to appear in your portal. In this case, I have added the RSS feed from the Spanish newspaper El País, “from its most sent news”. You can choose to view just headlines or snippets (like in this case) of up to four pieces of news.

35. Or you can create your own “gadgets” or “widgets” with Google Docs, Spreadsheets (insert gadget function)

36. Students’ Comments about NING

37. 41 students in three different courses participated in this survey about NING

39. The ability to post multimedia elements was what they liked the most. The Forums were the most disliked assignement

40. Here are their specific comments about NING

42. Or , in other “wordles”:

43. Brainstorming activities What kind of activities would you like to include in YOUR platform? Remember the following: Simple works best (e.g. photo activity) Make it relevant to their lives Make it entertaining