My name's Gavin and I live and work in Spain where I co-run an online training and development consultancy with my colleague Nicky Hockly. We specialise in online teacher training and materials development and offer the only internationally certified online training course in the use of technologies in language teaching (CertICT), and the only online version of the English UK and Trinity College London Certificate in International Business English Training (CertIBET). We also do a lot of work in Second Life on our three island archiepelago EduNation.

You can find out more about me on our website at www.theconsultants-e.com, or follow me on my blog at http://slife.dudeney.com or on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dudeneyge

My name's Eilidh (A- (as in A_B_C) -lee) and I am originally from Scotland, but have lived in Vancouver ,BC, Canada for the last 18 years. I work at the University of British Columbia's English Language Institute, where I am currently the Program Manager, covering a maternity leave for the second time, and where I also teach. The ELI has a variety of programs and a diverse student population. Many of our students are interested in completing an undergraduate or graduate degree at a North American university or college, and we also have other students here for just a short time who want to experience an English-speaking environment before continuing their studies in their home countries. I am interested in CALL and in teacher training.

Hi, I am Frank Stonehouse and I am Director of the Asesoria Linguistica program for Instituto Angloamericano in Morelia, Mexico. I am also the Local Area Administrator for Cambridge ESOL's Teaching Knowledge Test (TKT) in our certified test center. I am an avid blogger, twitter, facebooker, plurker, Second Lifer (Salty Saenz) and Creator of the Mexico English Teachers' Alliance (META) social network and the new Angloamericano Teacher Professional Development network. In October, I presented Connectivism - Personal Learning Networks for 21st Century Teachers at the 35th International MEX-TESOL Convention in Leon, Mexico. I love being a Teacher Trainer and digital pioneer and explorer.

• META: http://metamexico.ning.com
• TPD: http://angloamericano.ning.com
• Blog: http://franksblog.edublogs.org
• MEX-TESOL: http://www.slideshare.net/metaweb/connectivism-personal-learning-networks-for-21st-century-teachers-presentation
• Plurk: http://www.plurk.com/metaweb
• Twiyter: http://twitter.com/metaweb20
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=500841759
• Second Life: Salty Saenz, SLURL: http://tinyurl.com/metaweb

Hi, there! Happy to join you...My name's Doris Molero and I am an EFL professor at Rafael Belloso university in Maracaibo, Venezuela. As Franks said in his intro, I am also a  blogger, twitter, facebooker, Second Lifer (Pionia Destiny) and Creator of the EFL University Ning social network. Right now, we are at the 21st Century Learning in the EFL Class course at Integrating-Technology for Instruction and Learning social Network. This course combines F2F sessions in venezuela with a group of EFL Professors, Webheads in Action (a 10 year old CoP) and teachers from the world. Newbie teachers and experience teachers learning and sharing about integrating technology into the EFL Class. I am also a doctorate student and my research is based on how web 2.0 tools work as multiliteracy agents in the  EFL Class.

Looking forward to meeting you all and as I always say .. Keep on shining Love and Peace.

Doris3m

Hi all,

I'm Neil Ballantyne - I work for the British Council and will be part of the Cardiff Online crew (check out the Cardiff Team link to see us all).

I'm currently doing an MA in Digital Technologies, Communication and Education at the University of Manchester so while working on this site and wandering around Cardiff I'll be keeping an eye on the learning techs forums with interest.

Oh, and following in the vain - I'm @farang_utang on Twitter.

 See you soon,

Neil 

Hi Everyone. I am Chris Lima, and I’m a presenter at the conference and also one of the moderators of the Literature, Media and Cultural Studies (LMCS) Forum. I’m currently based in Plymouth, UK where I’m one of the Hornby Scholars doing a Master in Trainer Development at the University College of St Mark and St John. I coordinate the ELT Online Reading Group for the British Council, I’m the moderator of the LMCS discussion list, the co-coordinator of the Extensive Reading Foundation website and a member of the BC Brazil ELT Online Community. I am a blogger and an addicted World of Warcraft player :)

Hi, my name's Andy Hockley, and I am presenting at Cardiff.  I'm co-author of "From Teacher to Manager" (CUP) and a freelance management trainer/consultant and teacher trainer.  I'm also a member of the IATEFL ELT Management SIG committee.  I live in the wilds of Transylvania in a town n-one has ever heard of, even those of us who live here.

I have a non-ELT related blog at http://szekely.blogspot.com.  I'm on Twitter (adhockley) but cannot see the point of it, and on facebook, which at least seems to have a purpose.  I'd never even heard of plurk prior to this thread :-)

[Can someone of the team point me in the direction of this "On the right, you will see ‘Presenter Quick Links’, click on ‘Add a session’"  - I don't see 'Presenter Quick Links' anywhere].  Ta!

See you all in Cardiff

Hi Gavin

I did register as a presenter.  Perhaps my status is not finalised yet?

My name's Nelba and I live and work in La Plata, Argentina.  I am a computing laboratory coordinator and teacher trainner at the School of Languages of the National University of La Plata . I also develop  online material courses about the use of technologies in language teaching for TEACHNET.

As Frank and Doris have said in their intros, I am also a  blogger , twitter, facebooker and Second Lifer (Nelba Aeon).

I am one of the ARCALL- CALL Argentina funding members. 

I am very happy to meet some cyberfriends here and looking foward to exchange experiences on the net :-)

My name is Nergiz Kern. I'm a DELTA-qualified English teacher. I have taught English in various contexts in different countries. Now, I live in Turkey and work online and in Second Life. You can read about my first experiment with teaching an English course in SL in the current issue of ETp or on my Teaching in Second Life blog. I have co-initiated a group for language teachers in SL called SLExperiments. You can find out more about the group and join on our wiki. At the moment, I am also participating in a one-year post-graduate programme "Teaching and Learning with MUVE's" (Multi-User Virtual Environments). I'm planning to start my MA in TESOL and Educational Technology in September.

I'm Daffodil Fargis in Second Life and @nergizk on Twitter.

Hi All!  My name is Holly Longstroth and I have been living and teaching English in Finland since 1998.  I received my MA TESOL from Southern Illinois University @Carbondale in 1998 and previosly taught in S. Korea.  Recently, I have gotten involved in live online language training and am now the Director of Studies for LANCELOT School, which is a teacher training center in the use of virtual classroom technology.  Like many of you, I am a blogger, facebooker, tweeple, SLer, member and moderator of several ning sites, etc.  My SL name is HollySue Wycliffe.

Hi,

I'm Evelyn Izquierdo. I'm an ESP teacher at Universidad Central de Venezuela(UCV). I became a Webhead member in 2005, and after that, my life as a teacher totally changed. I cannot teach without technologies anymore. Nowadays, most of my courses are blended and some of them totally online.  This has been possible thanks to the British Council in Venezuela, Consultants-e, Webheads in Action, Learning with Computers, English Village Online (EVO), and my own university (UCV), where I am part of the Distance Education Commitee of the Humanities and Education Faculty. As a result of my efforts in incorporating Web tools into my language classes, I was awarded with a full scholarship to attend the WorldCALL 2008 and represent Venezuela in Japan.

I am also a proud member and co-founder of Avealmec, the Venezuelan CALL Association. This year, we run our first EVO session called Web-based lessons and e-portfolios. It was a wonderful experience. We are very happy with the results. And, as part of a continuous exploration, during the last six months, I have been interested in learning about Second Life. Last October, I was trained by Languagelab to teach Spanish inworld and I am currently taking a postgraduate course on Virtual Worlds called Muvenation.  Besides these activities, I co-moderate Venelt and ELTnet, two virtual communities for English teachers in Venezuela, and I am a tutor of an online TKT course for the British Council. I am pleased to be a moderator of this forum. I'll be happy to share my experiences with you and learn together. Welcome all! Thanks Nik and Gavin for this wonderful opportunity.

Warm hugs,

Evelyn (Skype ID: evelyn.izquierdo, Twitter: Eveweb, SL: Evelyn Michalski )

Hi

I am Howard Vickers and I am one of the moderators here (Learning Technologies).  I am particularly interested in using online tools for language learning - and especially teaching.  I started an online language school "Avatar Languages" a couple of years ago, which makes use of a variety of tools (some examples at... .  http://www.avatarlanguages.com/howweteach.php). My latest fad is using Twiddla in language lessons - a wonderfully simple but effective tool.

Along with Gavin, Nergiz, Graham and others above I am also into Second Life - and I'm getting excited about the SLanguages conference for language educators using virtual worlds in early May :)

I also blog and (more rarely) twitter too.  

Looking forward to the discussions :)

Hello everybody!. I´m Michael Boyce and I´m looking forward to participating in the learning technologies forum. I am a freelance teacher in Galicia, Spain and I work with Fynet/Netex elearning and the University of A coruña.

Hi, everyone - Dennis Newson.I'm a co-moderator for the Young Learners group in Cardiff Online, so I shall only be able to visit  occasionally. I was intrigued by the amount of activity here. I'm allegedly retired and have a developed an interest in retirement in Second Life - not a Second Life, please note - where I rent a house which I like to call a villa. I Twitter under the name of Osnacantab, which is my first name in Second Life - Osnacantab Nesterov. More details on:

http://www,dennisnewson.de

Hi Everyone,

I'm Pete MacKichan and I live in Thessaloniki, Greece. I'm another of the moderators here (Learning Technologies) :-)

My two main areas of interest at the moment are Moodle and Second Life. I've been using Moodle for several years in my teaching and I'm now involved in SEETA, a teacher networking project in SE Europe that is using moodle (currently http://community.britishcouncil.org/seeta/ although the URL is soon to change. I can be found in Second Life as Pete McConachie or Ruddell Weatherwax (that's his picture), where I rent a house (possibly a villa) a few buildings away from Dennis. I worked with LanguageLab for a while as a materials writer and teacher and am now setting up a blended course of my own.

I am a commitee member / webmaster for the IATEFL Learning Technologies SIG and this will be my first virtual conference, as I am unable to get to Cardiff this year.

Cheers,

Pete

Hi,

Looking forward to another online conference - maybe I'll make it to the f2f conference again one year!

My main current interest in Learning Technologies is the Interactive WhiteBoard (IWB) and in particular Digital Coursebooks like the ones produced by OUP - New English File Elementary and Pearson-Longman - Total English Pre-Intermediate.

I am also interested in using tools like email, blogs, wikis or even Moodle as a way of supporting the learning of my f2f students. This year I have experimented with using Ning. I might even be persuaded to try Twitter!

Outside Learning Technologies, I am still interested in extensive reading and continue to run class libraries in all my classes.

Chris

Great idea to have an online version of the conference!

I am Leigh Thelmadatter, originally from New Jersey, USA but Ive been teaching in central Mexico since 2003 after finishing my MA in TESOL. My professional interests include self access language learning centers (esp. how such can be used as "incubators" for the use of technology), technology in language learning (natch), autonomous learning (natch) and socio-cultural theory.

My interest in technology and self access come partly out of my own frustration as a language learner. I studied 5 languages but never really got beyond the intermediate level in any except for German and Spanish. For both of these, I managed to break beyond it because of what I did OUTSIDE the classroom, not inside. For Spanish, I improved my conversational ability before coming to Mexico by participating in Spanish-language chatrooms. That got me interested in how technology can provide learning experiences that the classroom cannot. My interest in self access comes from being horribly bored in traditional language labs and trying to find better ways to provide listening and other practice to students.

Online presence

Twitter http://twitter.com/thelmadatter

My wiki http://virtuallanguagelaboratory.wikispaces.com

Linked in http://www.linkedin.com/in/leighthelmadatter

Ning (co admin with Frank Stonehouse) http://metamexico.ning.com

Blog (on META) http://metamexico.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?user=2pg5fd6pt4zr2

Or just Google my last name... I created it so Im the only person with it!

Dear All--

It's great to see so many people from different parts of the world gathered here for the love of teaching and technology!

My name is Natalya Eydelman, and I am a teacher of English at Novosibirsk State University (Russia). Teaching with technology has worked wonders for me. Not only has it brightened my classroom and filled it with meaning, but also allowed me to meet many interesting people through participation in f2f and online events. In summer 2008 I participated in the Hornby summer school, with Gavin being its director. Two weeks spent at school were filled with a flurry of activity and made us plunge into the world of Web 2.0.  I am now in the last week of the e-moderators course offered by the Consultants-E. It has been a very fruitful and inspiring experience. What is more, I am going to keep a blog at the conference as one of its Roving reporters, and will try to make it live for those who will be participating in the conference virtually, and hope to meet in person those who are going to attend it. 

My special interests include teaching Academic Writing, ICT, and Media courses.

I keep a blog for my writing course on http://academicwrititing-762.blogspot.com/ and another one for the ICT course ICT in ELT on http://nataliaeydelman.livejournal.com/

Best,

Natalya Eydelman 

Hi to all
Nice to see some familiar "faces". I teach English exculsively to science students at the University here in France! (I trained as a physicist in a former life)  After following Aberdeen online, I absolutely had to make it to Exeter - but now I'm back to following from a distance again. I was very pleased during this year's EVO session to learn that so many people remembered using punchcards - but I still prefer my grandaughter's drawing to a photo !
I just have a beginner blog:
http://eannegrenoble.edublogs.com
but my students do great work
http://marjo.edublogs.org/the-poster-session/

I  love the way it's so easy to get out of the classroom with a videoprojector and and internet link - and thanks to everyone for such a plethora of interesting sites already!
cheers
Elizabeth

I'm Miguel Mendoza from Caracas, Venezuela. I work as an ESP teacher for the school of librarianship in the Faculty of Humanities and Education at Universidad Central de Venezuela. I also work as an ICT consultant, teacher trainer and editor for the British Council Venezuela. It is worth mentioning I have had the chance to work as a support tutor in online courses for Consultants-E. It's been a pleasure to have worked with people like Nicky Hockly, Carl Dowse, Valentina Dogde and Ana Falcao. I hold a master degree in the teaching of english as a foreign language.

Miguel

http://the-ve-blog.blogspot.com/

Hi.

 It's so nice to see the usual suspects are going to be at IATEFL.

I think that most of us have met each other F2F or virtually.

I'm a syllabus designer for flipcharts that use ActivStudio.  I'm the virtual and distance learning coordinator for my department at the University of Essex.  I also work for Languagelab in Second Life and have finally finished writing my 'magnus opum' (:-)), which is an IELTS exam preparation course for Second Life.

I also moonlight as a teacher trainer and am really enjoying working with TEFL newbies.

I've never really been an early adopter. I'm not the 'technology police' but it took me a while to jump on the blog-bandwagon because I found quite a few blogs to be a little too self-indulgent at times.  I've set up blogs for classes and courses but it's only over the last 12 months that I've started blogging for myself, as 'Grammar Girl.' When I was at IATEFL in Aberdeen (where I presented on concordancing) I was initially surprised to see how excited some participants were about podcasts.  And I may be found twittering of an evening but twittering and plurking are not really my cup of tea.

So why am I on this forum and why will I be co-facilitating a workshop on learning technologies in Cardiff? Because I have a great deal of respect for all of you and all the hard work you've put into your field and I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone's doing.  I hope to touch base with you in Cardiff.

Hola Iffaf!!!!

Trabajando mucho (Wow, tú lo estás también:-) ; aprendiendo mucho...Esperando finalizar mi programa de formación en la universidad para hacer más en el área de tecnología - especialmente dar clases en Second Life:).

Cheers,

Miguel

Orwell Mineff:)

Hi, my name is Maureen McGarvey and I am Programme Manager for Educational Management Training at International House London. I run online management training modules for new and experienced managers; have a look at www.ihlonline.co.uk I am  interested in providing training and support for managers and facilitating knowledge exchange and sharing of  best practice among academic managers in different contexts - which is why, for me, working online makes sense!  I will be attending IATEFL but will also be attending Cardiff Online so I can catch the sessions I missed. I'm looking forward to reading and participating in this forum and also the ELT Management Forum and the TTT Ed Forum. There is so much to read and so many people to meet, I don't think I will be getting much work done over the next few weeks...!!

Familiar and new faces I can see here, it's the great aspect of using ICT. This is the 3rd year I follow the IATEFL conference online. I'm a teacher of EFL at a teacher training university in Caracas, Venezuela. I've used blogs and wikis in my courses for 2 years - a little hard to get students to use them, but they're on the way-.

I'm a fan of many tools and and now, thanks to Dennis Newson, I'm in Second Life, looking into the possiibilities it has for my students. I also help moderate (a very tiny role) "Learning with Computers"YG. One of the most important events in my professional development has been my participation in setting up AVEALMEC, a Venezuelan teachers' association described in one of the previous posts. We are a group of dedicated teachers who promote the use of ICTs in the foreing language learning and teaching process.

Interculturality is a field I've worked in, but it should be in another forum, Global Issues.

My regards to the dilligent moderators, and participants. 

Hi,

I'm the Information and Comunication Technology Coordinator at the British Council centre in Bilbao, Spain.

What most interests me is moving towards more collaborative forms of learning and using new technology creatively.

I'm presenting a talk at the conference called Using fun web publishing resources for project and task-based work and you can find supporting material for it on my blog Encouraging learner autonomy.

Hello everyone!

I'm  Eleni Argyriou and I am an EFL teacher in secondary education in Greece.

I hold a MA in TESOL and I am interested in CALL, blended learning and virtual environmnents. 

I am very happy to be here and see some familiar faces... 

Regards

Hi,

it's a real pleasure to meet you all! I'm Marian Steiner (which is a common female name in the UK, but don't get mislead, it's a common male name in Slovakia, where I come from!), currently teaching English as a foreign language at Film School Zlin (www.filmschool.cz) in the Czech Republic, which allows me to combine film & the arts and English into a highly stimulating mixture.

I'm participating in an online conference for the first time and therefore hoping to get the most of it, make new contacts (preferably friends!), be inspired and, hopefully, throw in some inspiring thought in online discussions, too.

Any chance I will meet anyone here who attended the IATEFL / BC Finding Yourself as a Teacher conference in Zagreb in September 2003? If yes, then do let me know! I'll be delighted to meet you again.

Wishing you all a pleasant conference and see you (if virtually) around!

Best,

Marian