Moodle MOOC

Opening Ceremony

May 31, 2013

Introductions & Entertainment

Facilitators of Moodle MOOC

Dr. Nancy Zingrone

Jason R. Levine

Dr. Ramesh Sharma

Dr. Ludmila Smirnova

Judith Behrens

Dr. Nellie Deutsch

Dr. Nellie Deutsch

Nellie (Ed.D) has been teaching English to speakers of

other languages (EFL) since the mid 70s. She has been

integrating technology (computer assisted language

learning or CALL) into her classes since the mid 90s.

Nellie's doctoral dissertation research (available on

ProQuest, Amazon) focused on instructor experiences with

implementing technology in blended learning courses in

higher education around the world.

Nellie is passionate in sharing her expertise with Moodle,

WizIQ, WebQuests, Google Drive, and active lifelong

learning strategies with everyone. She is internationally

known as a transformative leader, community builder, an

expert in educational technology, coordinator of online

professional development courses, and mentor to

educators worldwide.Email: nelliedeutsch@gmail.comTwitter: @nelliemuller

Dr. Nancy Zingrone

Nancy L. Zingrone (Nan for short) has a PhD in

psychology, an MSEd in higher education with a

teaching specialty in psychology and is passionate about

Moodle, WizIQ, and online education in general. She

conducts survey research in the psychology of

exceptional and anomalous experiences, blogs about

learning, and is a Premium Teacher on WizIQ.

Her avatar, Maggie Larimore, is an active member of the

International Society for Technology in Education's

social committee, as well as the manager of a learning

center in the Chilbo Community on the Mainland of the

virtual world, Second Life.

Website: www.theazire.org

Blog: nanzingrone.wordpress.com

Jason R. Levine

Jason R Levine (Jase, for short) has nearly fifteen years of

experience in ELT as a teacher, teacher trainer, and materials writer.

He is the creator of ColloLearn, an approach to English language

learning based on the songs he writes and performs as Fluency MC.

Jase is Ambassador and Knowledge Entertainer at WizIQ. He also

teaches in the online MA TESOL program at the New School and

writes songs and chants for several publishers, including Oxford

University Press. He is chair-elect of the TESOL Interest Group Video

and Digital Media and works as an English Specialist for the U.S.

Department of State.

Jase oversees the ColloLearn YouTube channel, where his videos

receive an average of 100,000 views per month and the Fluency MC

Facebook page with over 16,000 members.

After earning an MA in TESOL from Hunter College in 1999, Jase

taught at several schools before becoming the director of curriculum

development for Embassy CES. In 2002, he co-founded a TOEFL

preparation school for international students in New York City.

Email: collolearn@gmail.com

Twitter: @fluencymcFacebook: @fluencymc

Dr. Ramesh Sharma

Ramesh has been working as Regional Directorof Indira Gandhi National Open University, Indiasince 1995. Prior to that he has taughtEducational Technology, Teaching of Sciences,Educational Research etc for B.Ed. and M.Ed.students for nearly a decade. From 2009 to 2011he has worked as Director of Institute of Distanceand Continuing Education, University of Guyana,Guyana (South America). He is a facilitator foronline workshops for IT4ALL. Further he is amember of OER Foundation and manages UPEmonthly Awards for WikiEducator along withNellie. He has developed courses based onMoodle and has been providing training to theteachers on the same. He is co-editor of AsianJournal of Distance Education.

Email: rcsharma@ignou.ac.in

Twitter: @rc4u2nv

Facebook: rc4u2nv

Dr. Ludmila Smirnova

Ludmila Smirnova is a Professor of Education at Mount Saint Mary

College, Newburgh, NY, USA, where she has taught for the past 12

years. At the Mount, she offers courses in Curricular Planning, Methods

of Teaching and Teaching with Technology. She has become

increasingly recognized for her leadership in the application of emerging

Internet technologies to education. She has run numerous workshops on

the application of Smart Technologies and Web 2.0 tools to the college

and primary/secondary classrooms. Prior to coming to the Mount, Dr.

Smirnova was professor of education at Volgograd State Pedagogical

University, Russia, where she also served as Dean of the School of

Foreign Languages. During her 25-year Russian career, Dr. Smirnova

was known for her work in innovative approaches to teaching. Beyond

the seventy publications based upon her work in Russia, Dr. Smirnova

has written for and presented to a growing list of professional audiences

in the U.S. and abroad. She is a co-designer and co-facilitator of the

Moodle for Teachers workshops at IT4ALL. Together with Dr. Nellie

Deutsch she trained thousands of educators, presented numerous M4T

workshops worldwide and wrote chapters in the books about teaching

with technology.

Email:

smirnova@msmc.edu

FB, Twitter:

@milasunshine

Judith Behrens

Judith Behrens is currently working working on her PhD in

Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) through Keiser

University's online program. She received her second

Master's of Science degree in the realm of Educational

Technology through Devry-Keller Graduate School of

Management in 2011. Ms. Judi (as she prefers to be called)

discovered Moodle and what it has to offer teachers and

instructional designers in the fall of 2010. She self taught

herself how to use the Moodle CMS tool until after her last

class ended, when she had more time, she enrolled in

Nellie's classes on the IT4ALL Moodle course site. Judi

graduated from Nellie's classes in December 2011. She

was brought on board the IT4ALL facilitator team. Ms.

Behrens values the openness of Nellie's classes. Being a

part of the IT4ALL team has opened a few doors. Judi is

now a volunteer Moodle designer with WiredSafety.org. Ms.

Behrens now has her own Moodle website through IT4ALL.

judith.behrens@

gmail.com

FB, Twitter:

@JudibeeFL

Skype ID: JudibeeFL

Facilitators

Presenters

Slide 11

1 Any help on the bios for the presenters is welcome.Nellie Deutsch,

Martin Dougiamas

Martin Dougiamas (born August 1969), lives in

Perth, Australia and is an educator and computer

scientist with postgraduate degrees in Computer

Science and Education. His work has made a

significant impact on the implementation of

constructivist models of teaching and learning online

with Moodle, a Course Management System.

His current research interests and inspiration are the

application of social constructionist referents and

networking to Internet technology, and the

methodologies and practices of open-source

software development.

Dougiamas's PhD thesis is entitled "The use of

Open Source software to support a social

constructionist epistemology of teaching and

learning within Internet-based communities of

reflective inquiry. (Wikipedia)

Stephen Downes

Stephen Downes (born April 6, 1959) is a designer

and commentator in the fields of online learning and

new media. Downes has explored and promoted the

educational use of computer and online technologies

since 1995.[1] In 2008, Downes and George Siemens

designed and taught an online, open course reported

as a "landmark in the small but growing push toward

'open teaching."

Born in Montreal (Quebec, Canada) Downes lived

and worked across Canada before joining the

National Research Council of Canada as a senior

researcher in November 2001. Currently based in

Moncton, New Brunswick, Downes is a researcher at

the NRC's Institute for Information Technology's e-

Learning Research Group. (Wikipedia)

Vance Stevens

Vance’s career includes CALL coordinator,

software developer, lecturer in ESL and

computing, founder of Webheads as well as

CALL-IS in TESOL, and facilitator in TESOL's

online professional development programs. On

the boards of APACALL, TESL-EJ, CALL

Journal, and Writing & Pedagogy, he encourages

people to have F.U.N. and think SMALL.

Vance founded and has led the Webheads since

1997. Today, Vance coordinates

Learning2Gether.

Dr. Bryan Alexander

Bryan holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and taught English and information technology studies as faculty at Centenary College of Louisiana. Bryan lives up in the Green Mountains of Vermont with his beloved family, many animals, and a great many trees. There he bakes, lifts weights, carries wood, and thinks about movies.

Bryan is a researcher, futurist, teacher, writer, speaker, and consultant, working in the field of technology and academia. He is the senior fellow for the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE).

Dave Cormier

Manager, Web communications and innovations,

University of Prince Edward Island. Principal,

Edactive Technologies.

Masters of Education, Educational Literacies -

Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, NS

Edtechtalk (2005, June - present) Host of weekly,

live interactive webcasts at http://edtechtalk.com

on topics around education and technology.

AACE Global U - Trends and Implications for

Learning (2009, Massive Open Online Courses.

Co-faciliated several MOOCs with over 5000 total

registrants in an attempt to both explore the

concepts of a Massive Open Online Course and

concepts are futures thinking for education.

John Graves

John Graves, a Ph.D student studying open source software

development at Auckland University of Technology in New

Zealand and the development of a voice-enabled interfaces

for chatterbot dialog using Python.

Systems Analyst, Quantitative Analyst, Portfolio Manager,

Multimedia Developer, Founder of SlideSpeech, Co-founder

or Work the Room.

Developed Slidespeech: http://slidespeech.com

SlideSpeech is the disruptive mobile, global, collaborative

technology poised to bring on-line learning to everyone,

everywhere. Authors simply create a PowerPoint

presentation and add a script in the speaker notes of each

slide.

Dr. Maria Droujkova

Dr. Maria Droujkova designs, develops and writes about

learning experiences for diverse people and situations:

early algebra games for pre-K groups of children; Math

Clubs and the Family Online Studies for family-centered

communities; classes and seminars for k-20 and

graduate students; and seminars, workshops and

classes for preservice and inservice teachers. She has

an MS in Applied Mathematics from Tulane University

and PhD in Mathematics Education from NCSU. My

studies have been supported by grants, and published

and presented nationally and internationally.

Her latest project is Moebius Noodles

http://crowdin.net/project/MoebiusNoodles and an

online book http://moebiusnoodles.com/TheBook, the

first book of a series that you can download.

Happy Moodling!

Moodle MOOC