Trying to Connect on English Companion Ning

Jim Burke, teacher extraordinaire in California, started a Ning for English teachers at the end of last year. I've followed the explosion of the EC Ning in the past three months with much interest. Since 1999, I have been a member of an online network, the Bread Loaf Teacher Network, and I know that spending time with people on the network prior to becoming really active helped me make a connection. I studied at Bread Loaf School of English in Vermont for a summer and formed lasting personal and professional relationships with teachers from across the country that I still maintain online. That relationship aspect of the network keeps me checking in almost ten years after I started my online collaboration.

I'm curious if Jim's Ning can help teachers make the kind of connections I was able to make with others on BreadNet? A recent report, The Digital Youth Project, identified two factors that drew teens to social networks, and I believe they apply here as well. People are drawn to networks that are peer-based or interest-based.

Of course the people who are on Jim's Ning are all English teachers. Some teachers will go to the Ning out of curiosity. Others will go to find lesson plans and teaching advice and never engage in discourse. Still others will go for the camaraderie. I'm there for the first reason, but not because I don't understand electronic networks and how valuable they can be to a teacher. (If I were not a member of BLTN, I doubt very seriously that I would still be in education, much less just finished with a terminal degree in the field.) I'm watching the ning to see if it works.

This past week Jim posted the start of a ning book club, so I bought the book, Rethinking Rubrics by Maja Wilson. I've tried doing a "book club" type group on BLTN, and it flopped, to be honest. I wonder how it will work on EC Ning?

Finally, I wish the EC Ning would "live long and prosper." I hope it can. If its users can separate the EC Ning from Jim Burke's identity and truly believe it is for and about English teachers, then I predict it will be here many years from now. BreadNet continues to thrive over 20 years after its inception; why not EC Ning?