Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Digital Youth Network

Just saw information about the Digital Youth Network and the Remix World - looks like a classroom version of Facebook - wonder what the difference is from NING software - I'll have to play soon and figure out if one works better than the other.
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  1. AkiliJune 16, 2009 at 3:33 PM

    Thanks for the post/inquiry!

    We're huge fans of NING, we actually built our first version of Remix World on top of NING.

    We shifted away from NING for a variety of reason, but at the time the main reasons were limitations on how we could build out our own feature set, user/student account control and privacy concerns.

    Our vision has always been to be able to build out unique features to support targeted learning on TOP of a flexible social networking infrastructure. Ning was great for this early on, but over time it got consistently more challenging for us to build out new rich features (this was when ning allowed access to source code for admins) and stay current with platform updates for basic functionality.

    Also, while ning allowed you to do a good amount of 'white labeling' of your site w/ premium features, our students still became exposed to other ning networks, all of which were not appropriate in our eyes.

    They provide(d) decent account admin, but we wanted complete control over our networks accounts...including passwords, email addys associated, etc.

    Again, I still LOVE ning as a service, i just think it wasn't flexible enough to be the best fit for the learning network we were looking to build. A lot of the features we currently have and are working on now would have been hard to integrate fully into ning's model.

    I am happy with where we're at now and slated to be in the fall though with our new platform:
    -custom media rating/critique system aligned with your rubrics
    -customizable incentive/rewards system
    -formal debate feature
    -tagging project collaborators on original media posted to the network
    -integration of self-paced learning activities
    -integration to curriculum management tool to allow students to keep up w class projects through the social network

    ...and lots more!

    We'll have a detailed writeup on all of the new and soon to be launched features this week at: iRemix.org

    Thanks again!

    Akili Lee
    Director, Digital Youth Network
    www.iRemix.org

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