Christopher Dawson grew up in Seattle, back in the days of pre-antitrust Microsoft, coffeeshops owned by something other than Starbucks, and really loud, inarticulate music.

He received a degree in Information Systems from Johns Hopkins University and began a career in health and educational information systems, with a focus on clinical trials and related statistical programming and database modeling.
      
Christopher Dawson is currently the technology director for the Athol-Royalston, MA school district and often spends his days in a host of computing and IT issues common to most small businesses, educators, and non-profits. He also is an avid blog for the Education blog on ZDNet at http://education.zdnet.com.

In our discussion, we talked about a variety of existing developing social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Ning, and their impact on education, integrated devices and the impact of messaging in a school environment, software purchasing decisions at schools, and effect and use of social networking and Web 2.0 tools on younger children in the K-5 market.

Gene Shwalb is an Instructional Designer for the Division of Corporate, Continuing, and Distance Education at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

He supports online faculty using Blackboard Vista, Wimba Classroom and Voice, and Adobe Presenter/Breeze. Gene is also an adjunct instructor at the University of Massachusetts Boston, teaching graduate courses in Instructional Design and Technology.

You can get more information on his department and work at:  http://www.umb.edu/it/tech/lms.

Gene was able to give us his history both an instructional designer and instructor using Web 2.0 tools and more information on synchronous learning versus asynchronous learning.  He was also able to show the advantages of integrating these tools with Learning Management Systems (LMS) and how they have been most successful.

Nancy McCoy-Wozniak became Stony Brook University's first Learning Architect in The Faculty Center where she consults with faculty on the planning and design of courses and effective course management methods.   She received her Masters of Arts in Education, specializing in Instructional Technology from the University of Akron.  She holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Hiram College and studied television production and communication at Lorain County Community College.

Nancy has worked as an instructional designer, educational technologist and online learning coordinator for over 10 years, and has been dubbed the Wizard of Woz at her previous academic positions.  She has taught online and traditional courses in computer applications, multimedia design, communication, and business. Currently, Nancy is documenting future technology trends and challenges in Distance Learning and the pedagogy of Web 2.0 and 3.0 technologies in the classroom.

Nancy has shared her experience and stories with us from her work as a Learning Architect.  She discusses her work and research on blending Web 2.0 tools into a traditional, distance, and blended settings through use of applications and devices called clickers.  She also touches upon the issues of having to follow school system standards, the uses and struggles to promote social networking communities like Facebook to creatively connect to students of all ages for lifelong learning.

Brice Peterson is a sophomore at Brown University where works as the Features Director of Brown Student and Community Radio, a non-commercial radio station broadcasting in Providence, RI.

At BSR, he hosts two shows: Heaven is a Disco, a music show that explores underground dance music from the 70s and 80s, and The Radio Show, a features magazine that focuses on collaborative and experimental features production.

Though he is pursuing a degree in English literature, Brice also works on a number of different artistic endeavors, which he documents on his blog called The Orchid Club.

In this interview, Brice discusses about the impacts of social networking on traditional students in the Ivy League world and interesting uses of Web 2.0 tools in the classroom including integrations of YouTube and iTunes University.

Since 1996, he has worked as a Distance Learning Program Coordinator at the University of Massachusetts Boston. 

In his present role, Dr. Girelli supervised the staff which provides pedagogy and technology to instructors using synchronous conferencing systems in conjunction with learning management tools for online course delivery.  Additionally, Dr. Girelli teaches writing and rhetoric course for various institutions, most recently teaching as an adjunct instructor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.  

Alan was able to give us a in depth history of distance learning in the University of Massachusetts Boston and the development of tools for more synchronous distance learning.  He discusses the challenges of the technology and the benefits gained through modern methods of online learning.  He also highlights its integration with other tools and use in environments beyond the University of Massachusetts school system at Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Girelli states he is “constantly humbled by the literacy level my two teenage sons demonstrate, with regard to Web 2.0 technologies.  They and my students put old relics like me to shame, when it comes to electronic rhetorics, but at least I can give them a language to discuss what they know.”      

Michael Staton is the Co-Founder and CEO of Inigral, Inc, a company that builds social web applications for education.  Their product Schools on Facebook has generated much excitement in the press. 

Before starting Inigral, he was an Educational Interaction and Curriculum Designer for a San Francisco start-up and taught in the Houston ISD.  He has an MA in International Development from Clark University in Worcester, MA.

In our conversation, Michael discusses Learning Management Systems (LMS) and their placement and standards in university market.  Learning how these compare and the heavy process of standard applications in education, has helped Michael shape his product Schools on Facebook to be more social than academic.

He further discusses this offering and its integration with campus social groups, alumni, and what companies need to do to engage campus communities.  He expands on what his product has become and existing social networking communities’ benefits and disadvantages (Facebook, Ning, Windows Live Spaces).

You can learn more about Michael Staton and Inigral's work at http://www.inigral.com.