Elgg, Ning, and SocialText September 2, 2009
Posted by B.J. Schone in eLearning.Tags: Design, Development, eLearning, elgg, Learning, ning, sociallearning, SocialNetworks, socialtext, technology, Tools, Training, Web 2.0
3 comments
Several social media platforms have emerged over the past few years which allow you to create your own social network. Organizations are using these platforms to aggregate some or all of their social learning tools so employees don’t have to keep jumping from application to application. These platforms generally have user profiles, status updates (pseudo micro-blogging), collaboration tools (ex. wikis, blogs), and more. I personally haven’t had a ton of experience with these platforms, but I’m anxious to dig in and learn more. Please chime in and comment on your experiences if you’ve used Elgg, Ning, and/or SocialText.
Elgg
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"Elgg empowers individuals, groups and institutions to create their own fully-featured social environment."
Pricing
Elgg software is licensed under the GPL version 2 from the Free Software Foundation. The full license is here.
Hosting
You can download and run Elgg on your own servers or you can pay to have somebody host it for you (see hosting information).
Ning
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"Ning lets you create and join new social networks for your interests and passions."
Hosting
Ning hosts your social network(s) for you.
Pricing
Ning has both free and paid options. The free version has ads. For some reason I was unable to find the exact pricing details on the Ning site.
SocialText
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"With Socialtext (People), you get social networking deeply integrated with enterprise collaboration. "
Hosting
SocialText can host your site or you can install the application(s) locally, depending on what packages and options you select.
Pricing
Details here: http://www.socialtext.com/products/pricing.php
Again, please chime in if you have experience with any of these platforms. I’m curious to hear feedback!
The Future of eLearning is Social Learning May 2, 2009
Posted by B.J. Schone in eLearning.Tags: Design, Development, eLearning, elgg, InstructionalDesign, sociallearning, SocialNetworks, software, technology, Tools, Training
2 comments
Jane Hart has been creating presentations recently to help explain social learning to her clients. Fortunately for us, she is now sharing some of this content online: Jane is working on a 3-part series related to social learning, and the first 2 parts are now available (and embedded below). Keep an eye out for the third part, which should hopefully be published in a week or two.
These presentations are valuable for several reasons. First, they explain the significance and importance of social learning in simple, people terms without getting overly technical. I would feel very comfortable using these presentations to help educate upper management on the benefits of social learning without hesitation. Second, the presentations describe a solid approach (using Elgg) for getting started with social learning. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with all of the social learning tools out there, and even though I’ve never used Elgg, it seems like it would be a great starting point. Finally, the presentations are extremely portable on SlideShare; you can embed and share them very easily with others. Take a look…
Part 1: The Future of eLearning is Social Learning
Part 2: Using Elgg as as Social Learning Platform
B.J. Schone
Eric Matas
kevinthorn