Hello I am Rafael Espinza I am from Costa Rica
I am university professor. In this moment I am doing my PhD on C&I major in learning technologies.
I like to be called Rafa
Hi :) My name is Suzanne. I was born in FL and have "hopped coasts" a few times, living in MD, NY, CA, CT, MA, and FL. I currently live in MA, about a half hour north of Boston. I am certified to teach high school Math but am not working this fall. The past seven years I worked at Masconomet Regional HS - my alma mater. Prior to that I taught in Fairfield County, CT for three years. Currently, I am completing a Masters degree in Education in the area of Technology Integration. In January, I intend to move to Nashville, TN and most likely continue my work in education, hopefully moving into some type of technology role within a school. One of the courses I am taking right now is called "Electronic Information Retrieval" and we are working on a unit about Web 2.0. That's what brought me here. :)
Hi everyone. Peg Tessling from Glenwood Illinois. I would like to collaborate with other third grade teachers-and all teachers about using Smart Boards in the classroom as well as learning about Classroom 2.0 and how to use it. I'll try group folders first!
Curious though with over 1700 posts as to the effectiveness of this as a way of introducing myself to the community. Do old community members still keep up to date with new members, do I have the time to look through the previous hundreds: no. Raises the question of effective size. I get the impression that this one has exceeded its optimal size and so has lost some of its cohesiveness and community. I suppose this is where the groups section comes in, though I am not a great fan of groups in Ning (I think that they need their own forum page, etc.).
Well anyway I am a Middle school teacher of Maths and Science in a remote island off Australia. My professional interests of late have been in the establishment of an online professional learning community for maths teachers across the Northern Territory of Australia. I am completing a Masters in Education examining the value of PLCs. I use the term ePLC to describe the online space for the community to meet. I think that where possible a blended program, of f2f and online is ideal: you simply cannot substitute for f2f social connections and building of social capital. I hope to explore the facility of Ning and social/online environments in engaging teachers in professional development. Please contact me if this is an area you are interested in.
Hello MarcelB and welcome. Yes, this classroom is huge, but do you know that despite having joined over 14 months ago, I still return, still enjoy the discussions and add to them as web2.0 tools change, learning outcomes may change, the need to learn more in greater depth as our emerging technologies take us in new directions. I am also from Australia and have met some fantastic people through this network. They have taken me to global projects, virtual classrooms, blogging partners and much, much more, so please do take time to look around and wander back to see what the latest discussions are and I am sure you will find some of the great benefits of being a member that others have found.
Hi Marcel.
I wondered the same thing when I joined. With over 140 pages of introductions, how effective is this thread. I added classroom 2.0 forum postings to my Google reader and read the introductions every morning. I don't respond to very many of the posts but I like reading who is here and why they joined. Welcome. I believe you'll find lots of good ideas.
Welcome Aboard, Marcel. Obviously this is a big group and of course nobody knows everybody, but overtime you start to recognize people by reading their posts and comments on the "front page". You can choose the option to be notifed by mail when a new comment is posted so it easy to follow the threads you are interested in. Let us know how we can help.
Welcome Marcel. I come back every time someone posts or join. This is a great classroom and I have learned so much and even gained courage to use the knowledge here with my students. There are several sites on technology but none with the wealth of knowledge that you will find here. This is what a classroom should be like. A fountain that overflows, where you can visit any time to get a supply of what you need for your students. This is Web 2.0
Thanks to all for your welcome and comments.
To be honest I have been in a bit of Ning joining flurry. I agree that there will continually be valuable content and ideas etc to be found here. I am not trying to put this community down (which would be a bit rude and I just joined anyway :-) ). And also great opportunities for making connections. There is a community of one form here, I suppose my personal focus is on creating a focused community with relatively narrowly defined goals. At a theoretical level I think that 200 or less members with similar needs and goals can create a strong shared identity, and more of a feeling of a community space with ownership and possibly also a feeling of safety. Again this is not a criticism of this large community rather a reflection on research and analysis of online communities. This community I think is at the other end of the spectrum, a large heterogeneous (though still with an educational focus) group which acts as a meeting place as well as a place to share ideas at an International level. I look forward to what I can get out of it and to the people I meet. This probably belongs more to another topic, but that's OK.
Cheers
Marcel, I encourage you to read this pdf titled "creating a network of purpose". It aims to connect people with the goal of helping kids who live in high poverty, or isolated areas, have support groups that help them reach jobs and careers by their mid twenties. This is a personal focus but one I share here and in many other places, as part of an on-going strategy of finding volunteers and partners who care about the same things and would help make the vision a reality.
Hi everyone,
Stephen from Auckland, New Zealand. I teach in a home room for 30 year 8s (aged 12 and 13) with a high tech focus. Trying to integrate tech into everything we do. NZ Curriculum is really good in teaching to the needs of the students with little high stakes testing until high school. That means I can integrate Shakespeare, Social Studies, Literacy and Language, ethics and ICT! Which is what I am doing this term.
Family wise, I have two sons: Lewis,7, and Connor ,9, and a wonderful, supportive wife, Tracy (don't all teachers need supportive partners?).
Coming to the end of an MEd with the thesis left to go. Strengths in curriculum, maths and literacy.
Don't know why I have only just found classroom 2.0 but here I am. Look forward to networking.
Stephen.