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.

[Amitai Gat]

Hi to all,
my name is Amitai Gat and I am an instructional designer and instructor in Israel's biggest educational enrichment program-Karev.
I work as an computer instructor in various schools in Israel, and graduate this year as an Instructional Designer and Technology expert.
Part of my job is to expose and help other instructors in my company with new technologies and how to implement them in education.
We mainly use office tools, and internet technologies, but in the past two years we have started teaching computer games development with Scratch and Game Maker.
Hope to find this network enriching and helpful
Amitai

[Susannah Brown]

Hi all,
I'm Susannah and I work in Higher Ed. in Australia, mostly attempting to convert old courses into a good Blended Learning model. I've just 'discovered' Ning, and being a Web 2.0 boffin, I'm always looking for ways to integrate new technology into learning tools. Looking forwards to picking peoples brains (not zombie-wise!) and testing the water before launching my own Ning.

[My Edagent]

Hi All

Tony from Sydney, Australia. I run a business which assists educational institutions to recruit international students using the web. To that end we have recently launched a ning network with the main aim of connecting education agents and institutions. If you are interested you can access it at: www.myedagent.com

I was doing some web research into how Ning is being used elsewhere in the education sector and came across this site. It seems like a great community and I look forward to being involved.

[Barbara LaBeau]

Hello, this is Barbara from Grand Valley State University, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I teach the state required technology course for prospective teachers, undergrad, and am also the coordinator of the School Library Media Program. The College of Education is actually looking at a ning for providing information to our students. The state is in the process of trying to catch up on teacher requirements and they are constantly changing for our students, which causes minor panic among them. So we are looking at a ning as one of the alternatives to keep them updated.
The state professional organization MACUL uses a ning for communication, it is more active around conference time, but it is a way for SIGs to communicate all year long.

[Angela Carritt]

Hi, I'm Electronic Resources Librarian at the Bodleian Law Library, University of Oxford. My professional interests are user education and web 2.0. At the moment I am using Informs (http://www.informs.intute.ac.uk) and a wiki in teaching - but I'm interested in the use of social networks in user education too.

[Joe Fatheree]

Hi Everyone,
My name is Joe Fatheree. I teach a Multimedia class in Effingham, Illinois. Each spring approximately 1,500 people descend on our small town to help celebrate the academic achievement of my students at our local film festival. This year AHA 6 was held at the Rosebud Theatre. The event was grown exponentially over the last 6 years. I created a ning to help keep our students connected to the greater community and to provide an instructional opportunity for my students to learn more about how to harness the power of social networking tools. If you are interested, please stop by and check us out at http://ahafilms.ning.com
By the way, we are in the process of hosting our first online global film festival. If you are interested in participating, please let me know.
In addition to the AHA site, I created a ning for our entrepreneurship class to help connect the classroom with our local business partners.
I am very impressed with the functionality of the ning. It is a great educational tool. Lastly, I hang out at Alan Sitomer's, Bookjam ning. I spend a lot of time there writing on the blog.
-joe

[Greg Limperis]

My name is Greg Limperis and I am a Technology Facilitator from Lawrence, MA. I have worked in this capacity for almost 12 years now. During this time, I have been extremely fortunate to work in two brand new, state of the art multi million dollar schools. Each school I have worked in, has had over 300 pc's each, a television studion, projectors, the internet, and now computers in every classroom attached to televisions, monocrome and clor laser printers, networked photocopiers, and video conferencing equipment from tandberg.

I am also the founder of the group Technology Integration in Education found on www.linkedin.com. This group currently has almost 1000 members and still growing. I recently created a page on ning http://tech-in-ed.ning.com that is now linked up to my group on LinkedIn. I also have begun sharing Ning with my teachers who are starting to create ning pages of their own for their classes to use.

I welcome you to join my group on Linkedin or here in Ning as well.

[kate dunton]

Kate from Brunel University, UK. Currently using Ning for the first time as part of a transition into higher education programme. At present our Ning site is open to all Level 1 students and is linked to a support site that encourages reflective learning. We are running a digital storytelling competition at the moment where we invite students to share some insights, thoughts, reflections on their first year at Brunel. We'll upload these onto our Ning as an introduction/welcome to university life for our incoming students. I'm also interested in using Ning to assist international students to make a happy and smooth transition into UK HE and to encourage intercultural collaboration.

[Ivette Figueroa]

Hello everyone,

My name is Ivette Figueroa, educator, licensed cosmetologist with 20 years experience and with a recent shift in careers as an education software developer. My shift came after many years of frustration with interviewing students, with very little hours to complete, before entering the workforce and realizing that I was not able to pay them, what in their mind they thought their exp was worth. The lack of focus and skills needed for them to produce is alarming. I am working on a VR education tool addressing the fear and anticipation of both cosmetologist and business owners.

I had no idea this site existed. Wow! What wealth of information. It is honor to belong to a site of like minded people, everyone wanted to pave a way for the future leaders of our country. There is so much to learn about this site and I am looking forward it.

[Christa Dillabaugh]

Christa - Buffalo, NY. No it doesn't snow nearly as much as the travel channel would lead you to believe - Buffalo is actually a wonderful place to live! I am happy to have stumbled across this site and hope to learn as much as possible on effective social networking in education. I am an environmental educator and most of my work centers around designing and facilitating international field programs for MS and HS students. I am currently working on programs in Peru and Costa Rica. My colleagues and I are committed to providing a comprehensive program for our students and believe strongly that preparation is the key to a successful experience. We would very much like to use ning as a platform for delivering content and background information and also as a means to build community between our past, present, and future travelers. I am new to all of this - but am in the midst of setting up a ning site with a companion wiki for one of my student groups. (Because we work with students, both of these sites are private) I'm looking forward to exploring all info available on Ning in Education as well as learning and collaborating with other members! One of my greatest challenges to date is figuring out how to effectively facilitate / manage both the ning site and the wiki - without spending every waking hour glued to the computer!

[ADRIANA GIOVANINI]

Oi, I am Adriana, from Palmas, Brazil. I've lived in Florida for the past 9 years, and I just found out about NING. I have a B.A. in Portuguese/English and a passion for languages. I've always worked in the education field. I've been working for the School District of Palm Beach County for the past seven years, as a translator and also in the computer lab. I also teach Portuguese for kids and adults. I Look forward to making good professional conections.

[Robert A. Evans, Ph.D.]

I am a Licensed and FL Dept of Ed. Certified School Psychologist. I am assigned, at present, to three high schools. I also have a private practice, mostly centered around divorce services, such as parenting plan and time-sharing evaluations, parent coordiantion and divorce counseling. I was originally trained at Long Island U. in Brooklyn NY, majored in Psycology. I then went on to St. John's U in NY withh a MS and Professiona Diploma in School Psychology. From there I graduated from The Catholic U. of American with a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Evaluation. I've been in the Pinellas County Schools since January 2006. Prior to that I was in Volushia County Schools, Fairfax County Schools in VA and BOCES on Long Island. I did an intership at Willowbrook State Schools in the mid 70's. This is my first experience with Ning and I'll figure out how to use it as we go along.