Thing 23

Is it too late in the process for me to feel overwhelmed? I feel a bit lame as I think of my overall impressions of Ning and Gather. I think the premise and idea for the social networks are exciting and full of potential. Tailoring social networking to the specific interests and concerns of a particular community is the perfect way to make a networking site professionally useful; in fact, it seems more personally useful to network with those that share your own particular interests. However, I found the sites visually overwhelming and a bit confusing. There seems to be so much going on that is difficult to make heads or tails of the information. I did find the Steve Hargadon Interviews on Gather interesting and useful because of the exploration of fundamental issues in education. I think I just need more time to learn to navigate these sites. I have to say that I tried to capture the Ning badge and a widget with no luck, but I was able to attach photos to my Ning page and I commented on Rhonda's page. Again, I probably need more time to mess around on both of these sites. Overall, I believe that these networks are the place where we as educators can join with our colleagues to explore and address important issues in education. Maybe this is a way for us to regain some semblence of a feeling of ownership and empowerment in an industry that often makes us feel like we are too small to have meaningful influence. Let's hope so.