Blog-twit workshop Introductions

[Maggie Verster]

Hi everybody!!!

Welcome to our informal blog-twit un-workshop! I will be your guide and anybody who have walked the blog and talked the twitter is welcome to jump in here and mentor those of us (I take it all our workshop attendees) who are just embarking on this exciting learning journey!!

Let me start by introducing myself. I am a social media and ICT for teaching and learning activist and have made it my life mission to get teachers (and every other poor soul who ventures anywhere near me) to use social media and computers in the classroom in such a way that we get to think and innovate. I hate boring uses for computers :-(

The reason why I have chosen blogging and twittering as themes for this workshop is simple! We need to claim our spaces in the web 2.0 world and twitter is an incredibly powerful learning and communication tool. I feel very lonely out there with few south african teachers in my blog and twitter -sphere and I need to figure out with you how we can REALLY use these tools in in our classrooms/everyday life

So about me.....I have 3 grown up sons and a step daughter and a wonderful understanding hubbie who is a total technophobe (but we are getting there...) I consult, develop material and play with social media tools to explore how we can use it in the classroom, so that you do not have to waste your time... (poor me ;-) ) I do teachers training (maths literacy and ICT) and generally have fun on the computer! I am aslo REALLY dyslectic- so what.

About the workshop.
The idea is that we have fun and have a great learning network and a goodlooking blog at the end of this. The whole thing is asynchroneous with online real time meet-ups in the chat room or on skype or wherever. If you have never used any of these tools before. don't worry- that is what this is about ....we learn as we go along. An un-workshop is just this- informal, convenient and on the fly!

So welcome!!! Please introduce yourself and give us a little insight into the real you....

[Khanyiso Tose]

HI I'm Khanyiso Tose residing in Phllipi a Township in Cape Town, i have a 4 year old boy not married and i'm very much ICT user. I work for an NGO based in Phillipi called Edunova we support local schools in ICT Training, Facilitation with the school environment, lately as an organisation we have been introduced in ICT intergration using the relevant tools, NIng, Wiki's, Bolggs, Twiiter the list is endless, and we would like to keep developing our teachers to develop comforyt in using these tools.
Intersting to see that someone has done this before i was hoping you could share one or two things with us.

[Maggie Verster]

Welcome Khanyiso!!!

It sounds like you have dabbled with the tools before. Will you be helping out to mentor our newbies or are you starting out yourself? Do you have a blog already??

[Khanyiso Tose]

At this point with my less knowledge i have i'd rather be a newbie myself,
I did started a blogg but abandoned it because it.

[Melanie de Bruyn]

Welcome Khanyiso! We are always glad to meet like- minded peeps. Please feel free to add me as a friend , and just drop by anytime you need help or have a question or suggestion. The whole idea of this workshop is collaborative learning, pooling our resources together, and learning new skills!

[Marie Doherty]

My name is Marie. I am from Donegal in Ireland. I am married with 3 young kids. I teach in a small rural school where I will teach 11-12 year olds in Sept. For the past 10 years I have been out of the classroom working with the parents but due to the economic downturn this job has been discontinued. Since I left the classroom technology has exploded and I am spending this summer trying to catch up. I have been trying to get to grips with it all but feel I need some guidance like this. In my school, I am the only person who is even looking at using web tools in class and I'd like to show the others some of this too.

[Maggie Verster]

You are soo welcome here Marie!!! You will have fun and support and we are looking forward to helping you create a great blog....

[Melanie de Bruyn]

Welcome Marie! I can sure believe that you must find it overwhelming getting back , and so much has changed!I am currently in the same situation @ school, and is really getting a lot of resistance. But together we are strong, and we will help you get there!

[Melanie de Bruyn]

Hi there, I am a teacher from South-Africa, teaching @ a small private school situated in rural Limpopo, South Africa.I am a e- learning , web. 2.0 fan, And would like to help and assist other teachers to become a first class teacher in the 21St century. We are in the world where everything evolves around social media, and we must jump on this bandwagon , and fast!
So join us, and lets explore the many possibilities the web has to offer us, and become the coolest teachers, and get our learners involved in their own learning process!Please feel free to ask if you get stuck, we are here to help!

[Maggie Verster]

Welcome Melanie, it is a great comfort to have you here to help with the facilitation and mentoring! As a valuable member of my twitter network and a great blogger AND a practicing teacher, you have lots of classroom stories and advice to share!!!!

(plus you can correct my english;-)

[Helge Reikeras]

Hi I'm Helge, a Stellenbosch postgraduate student. I'm currently busy doing research and development in new media technologies at the Stellenbosch Electronic Media Lab. The research is a part of my M.Sc. degree.

I'm also a part-time volunteer teacher/tutorer at the Kuyasa Learning Centre (NGO) in Kayamandi location just outside Stellenbosch. I tutor maths and maths literacy mainly for grade 11 and 12 and teach a computer literacy course for the same age group.

I'm very interested in open source (both software development as well as the broader use of the term). I've made some minor contributions to Ubuntu (mostly bug triaging) and currently busy working on SciPy (scientific Python).

I believe the Web presents amazing tools and opportunities for mass collaboration and innovation. By utilising the huge network, knowledge and skills pool available on the Web (just look at Wikipedia and Ubuntu) we could eventually solve world problems online.

The Web also features great new ways of learning. The ability to learn and communicate "anywhere, anytime" has the possibility to bring education to a far greater population at a much lower cost than at present.

I will help facilitate the blog-twit un-workshop. If you have any question about gadgets, RSS feeds, Twitter, WordPress or anything else please feel free to ask.

[Melanie de Bruyn]

Hello Helge- we have already met @ Author stream. I see that you are studying @ Stellenbosch? By any chance, do you have prof D Keats as you mentor? He has introduced me to e-learning , and has helped me alot:)

[Helge Reikeras]

Melanie, ja we did! but I do not have Prof Keats as my mentor