Last week I received an invitation from Hamza, who has set up the DIVAS Community of Practice in Ning, to join the community. I had a brief look and added a comment or two for other members but did not get to look in detail. Confusion arose when I was asked for my Master Key which, it turned out, is to do with me being set up as an Administrator.
Something I often do when I go into the Ning community through http://www.ning.com/ is almost create a new community. It's really just a case of not reading the screen properly but the Name Your Social Network box seems to be the first thing to catch the eye and it's asking for a name for a new community not the name of an existing one. 'My Social Networks' is much smaller, and fainter, at the top of the screen. If I go in through my initial invitation email I very nearly create a new account for myself but going in through the Welcome message (received after initially signing up to Ning) brings up a straight forward login screen.
It was good to see there had been some activity in the community and, in particular, Sue Lee has started up a discussion to which I have contributed and also started a new one concerning organising event(s) to get folk involved. Discussions seem very straight forward to start and contribute to and, I think, will prove to be one of the most valuable areas (for exchange of ideas and experiences) in the community.
The navigation in Ning seems pretty intuitive, however, it is not easy to read the locations (on the navigation bar) that you are not currently in or pointing at due to the pale blue on grey. It is possible to change the appearance of the community's environment and also, if we wished, to add a logo. This might be something to look at and discuss with other members.
Adverts are always a bit annoying and can be distracting but, as we have to put up with them, I'm just practicing mentally editing out most of the right hand column of the screen.
The Blog Posts are tucked away in the bottom left hand corner of the main page. I think it might be useful to invite academic community members to contribute blog posts - it may be valuable to have people 'blog' their experience of the validation process from beginning to end - starting with preparation. Some may have their own personal blogs and they could be encouraged to share their blog (or some of their relevant blog posts) with members of the DIVAS community.
I'm thinking it may be time to invite Chris Gray and Glynn Skerratt to join the community now and involve them in discussion concerning publicising events etc.
A few more points and questions about Ning:
How is 'Send a Message' different to 'Add Comment'? Does it show up in the recipients email and, if you opt to keep a copy of the message sent (as I did) where is it kept?
Note - everyone can see everyone elses comments - I'm suspecting this is ok but people may need to realise this. You can't switch this off under the Privacy settings in My Settings, however, you can opt to 'approve' comments before they appear on your blog or your comment wall. You can keep photos, videos and blog posts private by default (and override this when you add something) and limit the people who can comment on your photos, videos and blog posts (e.g. only friends). However, due to the nature of the community, to be a sharing community, I would not encourage this - if there's a real need to keep some communication confidential from other community members then I would discourage use of the DIVAS community of practice for that purpose.
Going against what I've just said in the previous paragraph, I am now wondering if there is a way to have a private discussion - I have not found anything obvious in Ning but it has occurred to me, if we are supporting both validation panel members and academic staff with modules going through validation - might these be separate communities, with some overlap, that may wish to discuss some issues within the confidence of their own peer community?
Well, that's me done for now. Feel free to comment. Cheers.
Something I often do when I go into the Ning community through http://www.ning.com/ is almost create a new community. It's really just a case of not reading the screen properly but the Name Your Social Network box seems to be the first thing to catch the eye and it's asking for a name for a new community not the name of an existing one. 'My Social Networks' is much smaller, and fainter, at the top of the screen. If I go in through my initial invitation email I very nearly create a new account for myself but going in through the Welcome message (received after initially signing up to Ning) brings up a straight forward login screen.
It was good to see there had been some activity in the community and, in particular, Sue Lee has started up a discussion to which I have contributed and also started a new one concerning organising event(s) to get folk involved. Discussions seem very straight forward to start and contribute to and, I think, will prove to be one of the most valuable areas (for exchange of ideas and experiences) in the community.
The navigation in Ning seems pretty intuitive, however, it is not easy to read the locations (on the navigation bar) that you are not currently in or pointing at due to the pale blue on grey. It is possible to change the appearance of the community's environment and also, if we wished, to add a logo. This might be something to look at and discuss with other members.
Adverts are always a bit annoying and can be distracting but, as we have to put up with them, I'm just practicing mentally editing out most of the right hand column of the screen.
The Blog Posts are tucked away in the bottom left hand corner of the main page. I think it might be useful to invite academic community members to contribute blog posts - it may be valuable to have people 'blog' their experience of the validation process from beginning to end - starting with preparation. Some may have their own personal blogs and they could be encouraged to share their blog (or some of their relevant blog posts) with members of the DIVAS community.
I'm thinking it may be time to invite Chris Gray and Glynn Skerratt to join the community now and involve them in discussion concerning publicising events etc.
A few more points and questions about Ning:
How is 'Send a Message' different to 'Add Comment'? Does it show up in the recipients email and, if you opt to keep a copy of the message sent (as I did) where is it kept?
Note - everyone can see everyone elses comments - I'm suspecting this is ok but people may need to realise this. You can't switch this off under the Privacy settings in My Settings, however, you can opt to 'approve' comments before they appear on your blog or your comment wall. You can keep photos, videos and blog posts private by default (and override this when you add something) and limit the people who can comment on your photos, videos and blog posts (e.g. only friends). However, due to the nature of the community, to be a sharing community, I would not encourage this - if there's a real need to keep some communication confidential from other community members then I would discourage use of the DIVAS community of practice for that purpose.
Going against what I've just said in the previous paragraph, I am now wondering if there is a way to have a private discussion - I have not found anything obvious in Ning but it has occurred to me, if we are supporting both validation panel members and academic staff with modules going through validation - might these be separate communities, with some overlap, that may wish to discuss some issues within the confidence of their own peer community?
Well, that's me done for now. Feel free to comment. Cheers.
