Andy Pethan's Colleagues

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Started this discussion. Last reply by Andy Pethan Dec 9, 2008. 1 Reply 0 Likes

School / Work Affiliation: Olin College student / Educational software developer

About Me: I am between my sophomore and junior years at Olin College of Engineering in Needham, MA. It's a small school of only 300 students, focused on being a leader in innovation in engineering education. The educational mission is what turned me onto education, the subject that I now spend most of my time on. Ironically, I'm taking a year off of my education to further pursue the topic, while also integrating it with my other two major passions, social entrepreneurship and technical problem solving (most often through software). I'm currently living with five friends from my class at Olin who are also taking the year off as we work together on an educational software business.

My startup is named Alight Learning. We're building software for middle schools as a framework for better collaboration. Contact me to learn more.

At 10:20pm on August 19, 2009, Jerry Neyenhouse said…: Andy,
I am a middle and high school special ed teacher. I would be very interested to know how your effort to build a successful framework for collaboative instruction is going. This could be very helpful to at risk students.

At 7:02am on February 5, 2009, Mike said…: I teach 8th grade US History at the middle school level (aka Junior High) I would be interested in hearing more about your program, too!

At 6:25pm on December 31, 2008, Jeff Reindl said…: I found your idea to be quite interesting and registered on the site so that I could vote for you. I tried to put together a CPB grant 2 years ago with a similar vision, but lacked corporate funding to make it happen. If you and your team stay on track I'd like the chance to contribute to your project in some way. Good luck!
Jeff Reindl - Lomira High School

At 11:38am on December 31, 2008, Ruth said…: Plus you are from Wisconsin-extra good luck to you!

At 11:37am on December 31, 2008, Ruth said…: Andy,
I am a teacher and coordinator of the Talented and Gifted Program grades 7-12. I was excited to receive your e-mail for a variety of reasons, one being to become aware of what an exciting opportunity you are pursuing;I will check out the site after I finish this e-mail and will certainly give it a positive vote.
Secondly, I was excitied to see what school you are from. Two of my students have applied to Olin this year and they will be very interested in learning about some of the opportunities the students from Olin have beyond the classroom structure.
I am also the coach of the high school robotics team through the FIRST organization--For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, and we begin our competitive season on Jan. 3. Olin is one of the colleges that offers scholarships to students who have been involved in FIRST.
Good luck with your project, I will be sure to watch its progress, best of everything to you!
Ruth
Pewaukee High School
Pewaukee, WI

At 10:08am on December 31, 2008, omolayo tomiwa said…: HI ANDY IM TOO MUCH IN A HUYRYY NOW SO ICANT READ UR MESAGE BU IM INTRESTED. I WANT U 2 NOTIFY ME WEN U BEGIN THANKS REPL;Y BAK. ITS NICE MEETIN U. IM STIIL A STUDENT FROM NIGERIA.

At 8:56am on December 31, 2008, Michelle Barkemeyer said…: Hi Andy,
I am a teacher in a small rural school and I think your idea is great. I did vote for your project - good luck! I think having easier access to all the current technology would help the novice be more comfortable with the daunting task of learning "everything."

At 6:47am on December 31, 2008, Paula said…: Hi Andy!
Thanks for sharing your project. The idea looks really interesting and I will vote for it!
Let me tell you a bit about me. I am from Argentina, where I have carried out some research that showed a very small percent of secondary school teachers make actual use of the Internet in for their practices. I will be giving a talk next february to share ideas and resources with many colleagues who do not even know about web 2.0. I participate of classroom 2.0 but would like to start my own network so as to show my colleagues here what one can do whith sites like NIng(and also as a personal challenge!) If you could please join me at
http://teach-with-internet.ning.com/

and probably invite some of your colleagues, too. It would be very helful to start making the network grow!
Thanks a lot.
Paula

At 4:06am on December 31, 2008, Wietze Reitsma said…: Andy,

Like your idea, you have my vote, succes

At 12:08am on December 29, 2008, Gina said…: Andy,
Hi~ I commented on Ideablob.com some ideas that the member below also discusses re: teacher level of personal confidence and the basic computer know how lacking in many teachers.
I am a computer teacher at an Adult basic Ed program in Mpls., MN. We've just hired a tech integration specialist who will be serving two programs (over 50 teachers) most of whom are not integrating technology at all. However, as the computer teacher I have maneuvered computers into every classroom at my program and I am subtly teaching them how to use a wiki, for starters. For many, this is a huge undertaking, until they experience their students using it. Then it is that experience that seems to motivate them a bit. My advice is to keep things simple, like a wiki, to begin with and make sure it is fluid and adaptable as the years go on. And equally important, it must be affordable!
Good luck!