This week I discovered the new groups function in Ning.  Like the rest of our TeacherLibrarianNing, this little function appears to be growing nicely. The widget allows the spawning of special interest groups off the main Ning. Right now we have a high school librarians group and a YA literature group. Please join us and begin a group of your own! I am now setting up little departmental Ning groups off our fledgling high school Ning as a strategy for enhancing faculty communication and collaboration.
Also, after some listserv discussion and a chat with Peter, we decided to create an LM_NET Wiki Annex to handle those files folks cannot send over the list. Please also join us there and share documents, presentations, videos with wonderful LM_NET community.
One observation:
People outside of this little 2.0 world think we talk funny. When I talk wiki, ning, flickr. avatars, etc. at home, around the neighborhood, or at faculty meetings, people turn off. Sometimes they walk away laughing. I want these people to listen, but I realize how goofy I must sound to the outside world. Is there a way we might remedy 2.0 jargonitis?
3 responses so far ↓
Are those who twitter technically twits?
Doug
I hear that. I gave a talk at a teacher’s conference the other day on Wikis, and I started off just stating that a wiki is a website. The looks on their faces! It was like the sky had cleared. A website - we’ve seen those. I think they thought it was some sort of new blackberry or gadget something or other. It’s hard not to sound like a fool, but I do try.
Perhaps this is something to talk about on our group site, aka “the Ning”. Seems to me that the language is already out there, it’s just a question of finding the right translation. I’ve described wikis as websites that anyone can edit/contribute to easily, and nings feel like just a place that includes a lot of other tools.
I’ve worked in many other industries (finance, executive recruiting, for example) where there is a similar problem with jargonitis. Mostly, it’s finding a useful synonym and using it. And realizing that using specialized jargon is 1. elitist, 2. discouraging to the newbie/outsider and 3. designed to make us sound silly to the outside world.
At least, that’s *my* take on it.
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