Hi! My name is Laura Gibbs, and I've just moved to Timberlake, North Carolina (near Durham-Chapel Hill), but I teach online for the University of Oklahoma, which means I am still virtually in Norman, Oklahoma. You can find my course materials at mythfolklore.net (plus other random teaching stuff, too).
I discovered this ning site thanks to a great little ning someone recently created for Latin and Greek teachers - if you are a teacher or student of Latin and/or Greek, check out eclassics.ning.com - it's a small ning compared to this one, but is a good sign of how web2.0 is bringing great changes and new opportunities to even small disciplines like classical languages.
My current passion is javascript widgets and gadgets - see SchoolhouseWidgets.com - is anybody else creating Blogger widgets and Google gadgets? It seems to me like a fantastic way to share content and create fun learning environments online.
Kudos to Steve Hargadon for creating this ning - I'm excited to see what I will learn from the folks here. :-)
Laura, your schoolhousewidgets.com page has lots of cool ideas. I lead the Tutor/Mentor Connection and blog at http://tutormentor.blogspot.com. I encourage you to connect with us occasionally so that we can show leaders and volunteers in non-school tutoring/mentoring programs ways they might use these widgets and tools to help kids learn, or to help more donors and volunteers get involved in supporting such programs all over the country.
Hi there, I am Suzie Vesper (aged 35) from Wellington, New Zealand. I am an ICT facilitator for nine primary schools in the Wellington area. It is an interesting challenge working with teachers rather than children :-) I am constantly looking for more ways to make ICT authentic and am currently loving all the web 2.0 tools. I have a wiki I maintain on these tools at http://educationalsoftware.wikispaces.com I also have a website where I put links to useful curriculum resources and teacher tools. This website is http://suzieslinks.com
I am looking forward to networking with people and finding out a hug amount of useful information.
Hi Suzie. I lead the Tutor/Mentor Connection, based in Chicago and at http://www.tutormentorconnection.org. I've created a library of links that connect programs in Chicago with others around the world. This past week I was a guest speaker at a Learning Mentors conference held in England (read http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/learningmentors/networks/confseven/). It looks to me like your efforts in New Zealand could connect with the Learning Mentors group in England with some benefit for both of you.
By connecting networks across countries my hope is that we can do more to attract strategic business and university involvement that leads to more and better volunteer-based learning activities for high risk kids in countries all over the world.
Hello everyone. I live in the UK, I am a Chemist by training but my focus now is ICT in education. I promote collaborative learning projects as a Learning Together Ambassador (British Council/FCO). I am currently also involved in helping increase the usage of ICT in schools in Uganda.
My name is, well, you read that above didn't you. I am very excited to be teaching technology next year for 5th and 6th graders. It will be my first year as a tech teacher. I have previously taught 5th grade for 5 years and 3rd grade once. I am particularly excited to learn 2.0 tech and to use it and inspire my peers to use it as well. I have taught in two districts in my area and have kept up relationships with staff at my first district, so I am hoping to really make an impact in my little corner of the world, which is rural northern Illinois, USA, the best part of the state, IMO..