Introductions

[Steve Hargadon]

Welcome! Please introduce yourself, let us know who you are and where you are from, and, if you are already using Ning in an educational setting, how you are using it.

[Steve Hargadon]

Hi, Karl. Great to have you here! Hope this gives you a good introduction to Ning. For more of Web 2.0, do check out www.classroom20.com/.

[Avis]

Hi, I am a middle school Special Education Teacher in the Greenville County School District. I have children with Mental Disabilities and I team teach with two other teachers who have children with Learning Disabilities. We combine our classes and we each have a subject specialty. I teach all of the Science Classes and one class of Social Studies. This way, I don't have 3 grade levels of 4 subjects per day which equals 12 preps a day! I just created a ning network for my students and I'm going through all of the "danger" scenarios in my head so I can have all of my ducks in a row before school starts and the children begin using it. I do use quite a bit of technology in my classroom and I work in a school that provides every child with their own laptop. I have explored blogs and wikis and I am setting up our ning network to have a one stop place for all of it.

I look forward to getting tips and ideas to use more technology in my classroom!

[Steve Hargadon]

Hi, Avis. It should be very interesting to hear how you are using Ning and Web 2.0 for students with disabilities. Please keep us updated!

[Carmen Crisco]

Hello!
My name is Carmen Crisco and I am school counselor in a rural high school in Virginia. I also teach US Government in the Middle College program of our Community College system. My friend and colleague introduced me to NING and I am anxious to see how I can use it in the high school and my government class.

[Steve Hargadon]

Hi, Carmen! Welcome! Hope you find some good help here!

[Corinne Wilhelm]

Hi, My name is Corinne Wilhelm, I am an independent corporate learning consultant from the UK but based in Germany, on the border to Austria (most of my clients are in Salzburg). I have been involved in www.tappedin.org for some time now and I teach online there too. My focus is English as a Foreign Language or actually ESP (English for Special Purposes) with three core specialisms: Finance, IT, Marketing & Media. I am interested in all kinds of technology that adds value and effectiveness to language learning, current interests are podcasts, mobile learning, LMS, virtual classrooms, Moodle and techniques that make these technologies a blessing that my clients can't do without :-) I am very very interested in setting up cross cultural language learning programmes, if you are interested get in touch please. I currently use TI, WIZIQ & Quia, looking to expand. I am actively looking for native speaking trainers that want to buddy teach too.
Corinne Wilhelm www.clever2gether.de

[Steve Hargadon]

Hi, Corinne. Wow, you have a unique background, and should be able to contribute a lot here. Thanks for joining!

[Marian Smith]

Today I set up a Ning for my school and the 2 neighbouring schools to help strengthen the relationship we have with one another. Gunbower are small rural schools situated between Echuca and Cohuna along the Murray Valley Highway. We come together at various times throughout the year either for whole school activities or as staff, for professional purposes.

[Steve Hargadon]

Hi, Marian! Great use of Ning, I think! Gosh, I'm really excited for you. Please let us know how it works and if it keeps the students better connected.

[Diane Sieber]

Hello all. I am a professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado. I teach Humanities and Social Sciences to Engineers, How Information Technologies work to non-engineers, and I am currently engaging in comparative research on the effectiveness of a variety of social networking platforms for teaching courses in higher education. Specifically, I am looking at Ning vs. Google Apps, MediaWiki and SharePoint. If you have any pointers for me on existing research or analysis I'd be grateful, as I'd hate to have missed something important in the existing literature (either published or online). A further question: I cannot play the introductory videos on the main page of this website; I keep getting sent to the Eluminate page without any discernible way to play these eluminate files. Any pointers?
Thank you,
D

[Steve Hargadon]

Hi, Diane! I hope you'll share how your comparisons go. The introductory video needs Java to run, and is designed to work on any standard computer platform. If you go to http://www.elluminate.com/support/index.jsp/, it will tell you if you need anything more to run the file. Email me at [e-mail] if you still aren't getting it!

[Darlene Marquardt]

Hi my name is Darlene and I teach in Eastern Oregon. I have created a couple of ning sites that are designed for teachers. One is general and the other one is designed for my Business Teachers Association. I haven't used NING with students because any kind of social networking site including ning, is blocked by Websense in our district. So I have to do any ning work from home and not at school.

BusinessTeachers.ning.com
OregonBusinessEducators.ning.com


~Darlene