Independent School Educators' List (ISED-L): Re: Ning no longer free

Friday, April 16, 2010

Re: Ning no longer free

For our middle school, Nings have been the perfect tool. You can upload
lots of content in an organized way, you can turn on and off things you
want to use or not use, and it was easy to use.

I would gladly pay to use Nings, especially if they continue to make the
product even better than it is. =20

I know we are all looking for the "free" but sometimes having a tool
that teachers use and just works for them, is worth paying for. We are
used to having Web 2.0 tools all be free, so I think the first thing we
all think about is what can we use instead of Nings that are free. I
think maybe a better thing to think about is do Nings work well for the
teachers and students that are using it. If it does, then why not pay
for it?

Renee Ramig
Seven Hills School

-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for independent school educators
[mailto:ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Bruce Lemieux
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2010 8:24 AM
To: ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: Ning no longer free

I am curious as to what other tools schools are migrating to if they
have
been using Ning. We have some faculty using Ning networks in class and
have used it in professional development here at my school. We really
liked the ease of use of Ning, the ability to add embedded content was
particularly nice allowing video, Prezi, Slideshare and other
presentation
tools to be incorporated. What migration options have folks found? Any
ideas?

Sincerely:

Bruce Lemieux
Director of Technology
Cushing Academy
39 School Street
Ashburnham MA 01430
blemieux@cushing.org
Phone: 978-827-7075

A forum for independent school educators <ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>
writes:
>Just an FYI
>
>One month after long-time Ning CEO Gina Bianchini was replaced by COO
>Jason Rosenthal , the company is making some major changes: It has just
>announced that it is killing off its free product, forcing existing
free
>networks to either make the change to premium accounts or migrate their
>networks elsewhere. Rosenthal has also just announced that the company
>has cut nearly 70 people - over 40% of its staff. Here's the email
>Rosenthal just sent out to the company:
>
>http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/15/nings-bubble-bursts-no-more-free-netwo
rks-cuts-40-of-staff/#comment-1030783
>
>So the question is, do you pay for a premium account or use a different
>tool.=20
>
>
>Garry Clum Jr
>Network Manager
>=20
>St. Paul Academy and Summit School
>1712 Randolph Avenue
>St. Paul, MN 55105
>651-696-1497
>gclum@spa.edu
>www.spa.edu
>
>=1A Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail