hi James,
i've just found your website. sounds really good! i'm in sydney.
How is edublogs better than other "overseas" blogs for collaborating? do you have a majority of aussies using it? I'll have a read through it and bookmark it. Thanks!!!
Welcome, everyone. Cary Harrod just signed up and is our 100th member. Hurrah! I am enjoying the dialog. I do with the forum posts could be in order of most recent comment, not when the original post was. I think Ning is working on that, and some other improvements. I hear they are doing another upgrade on Friday.
They did tell me that they are not planning to have an ad-free educational version. I told them that I thought that would really limit adoption in any classroom environment... you just don't have any control over what the ads will say. Click the feedback button at the bottom of any page and let them know that "we" (if you agree) think they need to reconsider.
Stephen Downes dinged me a bit in his blog for creating a "structured" social network, claiming that the real social network is self-created with blogs, feed readers, etc. My answer to him was: "hey, that just isn't working very well for most educators!" (I'm paraphrasing!) See the dialog here.
I guess the real test will be to see if Classroom 2.0 helps those who are not currently in the blogosphere take their first steps and start to feel comfortable. I'm not sure we'll succeed, but I really *like* the idea.
Hi! My name is Cary Harrod and I'm from Cincinnati, Ohio. I split my time between working with 3-5 graders and leading a technology initiative for our district. I am thrilled to be a part of Classroom 2.0!
My name is Shawn Moore. I am an 8th grade science teacher in Lenoir, NC. This will be my last year in middle school as I plan on moving to the high school setting next year. We are located at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mtns in a very beautiful area. For a good portion of its history, Lenoir has relied on furniture manufacturing as its economic base, but those jobs are truly long gone. The area is in a transition and within the past few months things have been on an upswing due to the current construction of a server farm by Google in our town. I am adamant in my desire to make my students competitive in the Web 2.0 world and I am exploring everything that I can to make that a reality!
Hi. Kathy Lawrence here, from Cleveland Heights Ohio. I have three teenagers who use myspace all the time. I am hoping that joining this community ehlps me understand their fascination with online social networking. I want to find "friends" here who work in high school libraries. I would also like to find people who live near me geographically. Do you just go out and randomly read profiles and invite strangers to be friends? That seems too time consuming, let alone a bit weird to initiate conversations with strangers. Can someone tell me what is the easiest way to find friends?
Kathy: I usually watch the forum for someone who says something that resonates with me, and strike up a conversation. You also might want to check out http://library20.ning.com. Take care.