Are you active in your community?

To be an effective Extension Agent you have to be active in your community. There are many different types of communities. But basically, they boil down to sharing a common location, a common interest or both. With all the social networking tools available today, it is much easier for communities to be created and maintained around a common interest. These tools can also be used to keep people who live and work near each other better connected as well.

One tool I have come across recently that I think has some use in extension programming is Ning.com. Ning has a lot of features similar to Facebook groups, like individual member pages, event calendars, photo and video sharing and discussions. But, it has some features that make it better suited to extension educational programs like forums, blogs and subgroups. If your audience (or you) is new to social media, this would be a great way to get started. It provides a safe place to learn and share without many distractions. It keeps the discussion focused on the topic.

How do I see agents using Ning in their programs? One example would be to continue the learning and teaching away from the face-to-face meeting. When I was a livestock agent I taught a several week long "Beef Cattle 101" course. We met for a couple hours once a week. But, from the end of one class to the beginning of the next class, most of the participants had no communications with the others. Using a tool like Ning would have given us all the ability to continue the discussion and expand it into other areas. The participants could ask questions, answer each other's questions and start to develop a community that would continue past the end of the class.

I could see this being useful for commodity or professional associations, parenting classes, 4-H clubs, master gardeners (if you aren't using the ncsugarden.com site), young farmers clubs, local community clubs, and lots more.

It is real easy to learn and setup. If you need any help, please call on me.

Some good examples of how Ning groups are being used and to let you see the potential are:
NCSU Web Developers
NCSU College of Education
Agricultural Communication
Firefighter Nation
JEMS (Journal of Emergency Medical Services)

Or search Ning.com by clicking on "Find Social Networks" for keywords of groups you'd be interested in. There are lots of currently existing and active Ning groups.

If you are interested in a brief overview of Ning and creating a Ning group, I'll be presenting a "30 minute session" on July 29 at 2:00 ET at: http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/learn. Sponsored by eXtension - see the Schedule of Professional Development Opportunities for more information.

Information presented here is provided as a general information resource. Any mention of commercial products is for information only; it does not imply recommendation, endorsement nor support by Extension IT.