Communities

Community tools create a social network within a secure space for student teacher collaboration. They can be a short term tool for a particular project but are more suited to being a space that is the focal point of class interaction over a prolonged period.

A **Ning** is a highly customisable tool that creates an engaging multifunctional communal site and were very widely used, when they were free. Now a Ning Mini for up to 150 users will cost around $30 per year - a very small amount when you balance that against the educational value it gives. However multiply that cost for every class and when other options are free many schools around the world have stopped using Nings. North American schools are fortunate as K-12 and Higher Ed users can get a free Ning Mini thanks to **sponsorship from Pearson**.

An excellent example of the collaborative educational use of a Ning is the ** Classroom 2.O ** site.


 * Edmodo** is a secure social network for students. A teacher creates a class space that student join in order to share content, notices and interact with messages. It is quite simple to set up and has a very nice look and feel. It does not have as large a feature set as a Ning but it is free and well suited for use on mobile devices.


 * Twiducate** is quite Twitter like and offers little more than a very basic looking forum. It is very simple to set up and free so if all you want is a site to collate thoughts then this may suit.


 * Diipo** is also merely a fancy Twitter like forum. It is however very well presented and simple to set up and use. Importantly it takes the functionality of Twitter and allows your students to use it in a secure space.