Welcome and Introductions...

[Steve Hargadon]

Welcome!

Please comment here, letting us know who you are, where you are from, and what your interests are.

[Julie Lindsay]

Hello Edubloggers of the world!
I am an international educator originally from Melbourne, Australia. In the past 10 years I have been teaching in Zambia, Kuwait and Bangladesh. In August I move to Doha, State of Qatar to start at Qatar Academy as Head of IT. My blog is called E-Learning Blog and I am co-founder, with Vicki Davis, of the Flat Classroom Project.

I look forward to interacting with other education bloggers around the world. The aim of this Ning is to connect and communcate and share on a global/international/world platform to do with blogging and online communication tools and pedagogy. Let's see what we can learn from each other, the world is out there for us to explore!

[Darren Draper]

My name is Darren Draper. I'm a Technology Specialist in Sandy, UT, USA. I love technology and find particular joy in teasing the Aussies.

I've created a motivational presentation that you may have seen and have plans for a follow-up to be released soon. I also try to contribute something meaningful to my blog on a somewhat regular basis and have managed to become a Twitter-holic.

Graduate studies are currently eating up a lot of my time, but have also been a source of additional ideas. I am in a doctoral program (in Education) at Utah State University.

I, too, am excited to participate in this community and hope we can grow together. Many people have been clamoring lately about how flat our world has become - hopefully with this interaction, we can add additional evidence to support such ideas.

[Charlie A. roy]

Darren,

I love the piece you put together "motivational presentation" I've shared it with my staff and it was proven to be a great discussion starter. Thanks for your efforts in producing the piece and sharing.

[Jeri Hurd]

After 20 years of teaching English in Washington State, Turkey and Egypt, I decided to make the switch to libraries and am just finishing up my MLIS in Pittsburgh. I start a new job this fall as the Upper School Librarian and technology leader. I'm especially interested in digital storytelling, documentaries, etc. But I've been boning up on wikis, blogs and all things Web 2.0 this summer, and am so excited about it I decided I actually want to teach one class next year so I can try all these things out! I have a great idea for a project that incorporates blogs, wikis, and iMovie. Probably overambitious, but everything's an education, right?

I started my own blog a few weeks ago, so I'm hoping for ideas and advice here and a good place to share. Jeri

[Jason Hando]

Hi, my name is Jason Hando and I am from Sudney, Australia, where I teach in a high school where technology use is fairly prevalent but I am always stretching the boundaries. I teach computing and design subjects and also lead my faculty of inspirational teachers. We have a website with 700 plus daily users built with Moodle, found at http://technologyfaculty.com. My own personal web presence can best be seen via my pageflakes page.

In terms of interests, my main two at the moment are Moodle and Joomla, two open source web server systems that have so many uses in education it blows my mind. I want to get more educators using these tools because I see them as workable in any school setting, no matter how strict the rules are on web technologies.

I look forward to getting involved in these discussions. Lets get an international movement happening that is well grounded, well researched and destined to be heard!

[Charlie A. roy]

Jason,
I've just begun reading about Moodle as an opensource solution. Is it similar to Blackboard and other for profit applications? Is there a way I could see what you are doing with Moodle? It sounds incredibly powerful with many applications.

[John Maklary]

Hi, my name is John Maklary and I am the technology coordinator for John Paul II Catholic School in Houston. In addition to fixing anything that plugs in, I teach middle school technology and digital media classes. I also provide professional development to help teachers integrate more applicable technology into their curriculum.

My goals this year are to:

1. Create and deliver a year-long web 2.0 enabled digital media curriculum for eighth grade.
2. Blog more regularly. I read a LOT of blogs, including many of those in this group and I have lots of things to say about them but finding the time to wordsmith my thoughts.... see #1 above.
3. Better engage my teachers with more effective professional development.
4. Bring more wiki technology to our school, both administratively and academically.

I would be interested in getting opinions and wisdom about any of the above, but especially #1.

[Jenny Barrett]

I am Jenny Barrett originally from the UK now living in New Zealand. I work in a facilitator role, supporting schools, teachers and students to integrate technology into the classroom. Today (!) I am interested in Web 2.0 with e-portfolios in mind. Also Moodle - I've a site up and running at http://sitech.elearning.ac.nz and I am on a committee organising a gathering of NZ schools using Moodle to share ideas and models. I'm also looking into the use of voting clickers in primary and secondary classrooms.

I have used blogs in my teaching and have always been an avid reader but until today have never had my own reflective blog - I am about to set one up. Can't really join edubloggers without one, can I?

I am looking forward to interacting with you all - and an aside, I'm heading to Melbourne next month and I'd love to visit some schools whilst I was over so if anyone has any suggestions...

[Carolyn Foote]

I'm a high school librarian from Austin, Texas, which is a college "town" that is facing incredibly fast growth.

I'm fascinated by web 2.0 tools, how they can deepen and enrich our students' learning, and how we can use them transformatively in the research process. How do libraries and schools change when so much information is accessible all the time, and how do we support our students in being 24/7 learners?

I'm looking forward to helping teachers and students make more connections by being a member of this community and helping to be an "idea" person for our campus.

I started a blog about a year ago at www.futura.edublogs.org.

Looking forward to what we can accomplish together!

[Sue Waters]

Hi Everyone

I am based in Perth, Western Australia (one of the most isolated city in the World) and am a TAFE lecturer (vocational education and training). I have two roles in my college - as an aquaculturist (teaching people how to farm fish) and faciliating staff professional development in e- and m-learning.

I am a bit of an online-aholic (and a twitterholic). These are some of my better known websites, Mobile Technology in TAFE blog, , Mobile Technology in TAFE wiki and Mobile Technology in TAFE podcasts.

Like interacting with others.

[Charlie A. roy]

Sue,

On a completely unrelated note. I've heard Perth has a gold mine? True?

[Stephanie Sandifer]

I am an educator serving in a campus-based instructional leadership position at a high school in Houston, Texas. I have been blogging about education issues (and ed tech) for about a year and a half (http://ed421.com) and have come to the conclusion that Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, and social networks (including virtual worlds) are powerful personal and professional learning tools.

I intend to continue blogging with a passion and to continue connecting with others across the blogosphere/Web 2.0 landscape in efforts to learn more, do more, and be more with regard to reinvention of 21st learning environments/schools.