One of my dabbles over the summer that I’ve spent mostly offline was to join an Elgg community set up by the folks over at Worldbridges.  (Specifically, I think it was Alex and Arvind’s idea.  Good idea, gentlemen.)  The commmunity, open to all y’all, is a playground for talking about teaching, technology, and modeling how to create a social network of teachers using Elgg, a piece of software that I didn’t really care all that much for. 
    Until now.  I’m beginning to get how useful the tool might can be, particularly in that it’s very dynamic — participants in the community can build spaces and groups, while an administrator, I think, can maintain control when necessary.  It’s kind of like a wiki for community building, where everyone can help out.  I also like the different levels of publication available with the software, as I know that not everything that I ask my students to do should be 100 percent public. 
    I’m still exploring and experimenting, but I’m really beginning to think that a tool like this has lots of potential at my school, specifically since so many of my students use these types of communities to maintain relationships outside of school.  I wonder if I can create a successful social network that centers around education and learning. 
    I’ve seen other people have success doing so, so I’m really starting to think that I might can.  Now that Elgg is beginning to be integrated with Moodle, I really think I’ve got a suite of tools that I can use to do some pretty cool stuff.  Maybe.  Again, I’m still exploring, but I think it’s doable.  I’ve gotten to the point where it’s time to try out a few ideas and see if I can make something that I can use. 
    Tonight, I’m off to find out.  My FTP program is busily sending files onto some repurposed server space, and I’ve purchased a couple of new domain names. 
    Let the experiment begin. #