Connecting with China?

[Miss Wyatt]

I'm currently in a 20/20 NAIS collaborative with a school in China. Unfortunately, though, many online collaboration sites (like Nings) seem to be blocked in China. Does anyone have suggestions for social networking sites that are not blocked?

[Anne Mirtschin]

I teach in a small rural country school in south eastern Victoria, Australia. We have a sister school in Beijing and find that even our emails do not get through for much of the time. Ning was blocked due to the national celebrations and there is talk that it will be unblocked. @julielindsay teaching at Beijing International School uses the discussion tabs of wikispaces for virtual teamwork, interaction and for socialization as nings are still currently blocked.

[Durff]

Try VoiceThread or Skype.

[Katy Gartside]

Edmodo might work - it's protected, and you would have to create groups and have the kids sign up to them. We have done it with a school in Australia (we are in NYC). I made 3 groups, and we had 1/3 of our kids join each group. It is working well so far!