My first introduction to worldbridges and edtechtalk were from a suggestion from Bob Sprankle. I started listening and skyping in with Worldbridges and Edtechtalk in April of 2004. In November 2004, at the Christa McAullife Conference in Nashua, NH, I met Jeff Lebow. The following November 2005 I went on a 13 week sabbatical and decided to take the online Webheads in Action class. I am a Webhead class of 2006! During the summer with some gently prodding from Jeff and Dave Cormier, I took the webcast academy class. When I finished last August I had completed 2 of my intern shows and then started back at school. School took over. One day I was approached by some women to join a group called Women of Web 2.0, to give the female voice to the edublogosphere and developed a proposal for NECC 07. All this happened in the span of 36 hours. About a week later, there was a webcastathon being developed and the Women of Web 2.0 took a time slot and started a webcast. It was fun, a challenge and now we are ready for show #37! Had you told me I would be a regular webcaster a year ago I would have laughed. But, the professional development it has afforded me is tremendous. Try out webcasting, find your niche, it is a wonderful community and I thank all the webcasters and the listening community for their support!

Finally, it was amazing to broadcast live from NECC 2007, I really thought that it would be the Women of Web 2.0, sitting at a cafe table with 5 people in the audience watching us. When we had an entourage file in the conference center with us to watch, and with a few technical difficulties, Dave Cormier to the rescue, we went live, and then had another dozen people file in. It was great, over 30 people live watching us, taking photos, giggling, oh, that was the Women of Web giggling, it was a wonderful experience. http://www.edtechtalk.com/node/1778

I know I am repeating myself, but I lost half of my post, so bear with me. If you had told me one year ago when I was taking the webcast academy that I would be working on my 37th show I would have laughed out loud. Never say never, is what I say now. I use an intel imac, nicecast, a simple logitech microphone and my ipod headphones. My screen although it is 17 inches, is not big enough to watch all the windows I need to view. I love skype, I am challenged by skypecast, I can wiki, blog, and stream all at the same time.

You will love the webcast academy. I used to have tons of butterflies before I began webcasting. Now, while I still have a few butterflies, I know there is a whole supportive community out there who will come to my rescue. Have fun webcasting, and you too could have your own show.

Over and Out! Cheryl Oakes, WoW2.0

Thanks to Jen Wagner, Sharon Peters and Vicki Davis for working with me to create wonderful resources for educators. Thanks to Jeff Lebow, knight in shining armor. Thanks to Dave Cormier for always showing up in a time of need. Thanks to Doug Symington for encouraging me and giving me the courage to buckle up my seatbelt and always wear my goggles when trying something new!

I wish I had dated this, but it sounds like it was written August 2007. Here is is August 2008, and another milestone. The Women of Web 2.0 hit show number 85, webcasted Live at NECC08, Sharon Peters spent the summer in Africa, Vicki Davis has moved on to more Flat Classroom projects and Jen Wagner has expanded her classroom online projects. Stay tuned for more Women of Web 2.0 news. Many changes were in the winds for me. I really felt like we had accomplished our goal of presenting at NECC07, providing a voice for women in the blogosphere and as a webcasting community. However, as successful as WOW2.0 is and has become and will continue to be, it is time for me to focus my energies locally in my school district, my region and back to my original podcast SEEDLINGS with Bob Sprankle and Alice Barr. So, the reasons for my gradcast. Alice and I took the class of 2.2 together. We are ready to graduate. Susan Ettenheim and I, co-taught Webcast Academy last summer 2007 and had a tremendous experience. Now all 3 of us are planning a graduation, tonight as a matter of fact. August 11, 2008. Alice and I will graduate and begin SEEDLINGS@BitbyBit and SEEDLINGS@Edtechtalk!! We will show up consistently on Thursday evenings 3 times a month, at 19:30 to 20:30 GMT, sandwiching Lisa Parisi's show Teachers Talking. We are pretty excited!

So, for now off to prepare the graduation ceremony. Hope to see you there.

This is the beginning of my webcaster portfolio. I joined Webcast Academy in April, 2006.

Paul Allison had initiated a Skype call once a week so a group of teachers in NYC collaborating with teachers from all over the country could plan together. He was following edtechtalk and worldbridges. I took a look and saw the announcement for Webcast Academy. It sounded interesting! I once asked Jeff and Dave - Why live? Why open up the audio live as opposed to just the closed Skype call or a podcast. Their answer was - because you never know when a Paul Allison or a Susan Ettenheim might show up. They would change the name for the person in question of course! I would listen in  - they would see my name pop up and invite me to call in. But I just wanted to listen I would babble.. and they would say - why not join in?

I had been working in online community for a few years and had spent many hours learning and honing skills on enticing users to "join in" to online text chats and message boards, but now I found myself on the other side of the fence and their warmth of invitation and the fact that I was missing that work, finally caused me to slowly, sometimes... click that button and call Worldbridges. All the rest is history of course.

It wasn't easy for me at first, which is what makes me a fair teacher at school. I know what it's like when it's hard! Below are some memorable broadcasts. I seem to be eternally famous for the monologue in the beginning when everyone could hear me but I could not hear them. I talked on, talking through the problem, hoping that if I kept talking and showed that I was trying, they would not leave and give up on me! Cheryl and I have continued this tradition with our latest jing screencasts of how to kick the stream. We each created the screencasts, but each of us only recorded our half the conversation- what a wacky screencast that made!

There were periods when everything would just fall into place Wednesday evenings for Teachers Teaching Teacheres (Paul named the show) and there were periods where nothing would go right and week after week, the show was late or the call dropped 4-5 times during the one hour. I think the greatest challenge for Paul was not planning a show but planning how to restart a show 4 times in one hour when he never knew when the call would drop - and keeping everyone engaged and coming back! At least I paid for those rough evenings by having to spend hours and hours editing to get anything to post on the blog. Another big time for me was when Paul went on vacation last summer and decided that the show must go on. Last summer and this summer, it has been interesting, but I sure will be glad when he comes back! Alex and Arvind, two webcasters I admire also know how important it is to have a partner in this work!

Finally, just to freeze this in time a little, I had my first surgery (in my whole life!) two and a half weeks ago (summer of 2007). While it was not major, it required being off the repaired foot for two weeks. For two weeks, I looked forward to getting up early every morning and turning on my Skype to catch up with those across the globe who were learning and struggling with the new programs. I would work online until I just got too tired and then turn off and sleep. As every day went by, I could stay up a little later and soon I was even back online in the evening! Then, as you will all remember, Skype went down.

I was much better by then but still sitting with my foot elevated. It was the most eerie, lonely day. I was working online and it's not as though I was ever with anyone, but all of a sudden, I felt so isolated and lonely all day! That was when I realized just how much this community has meant to me and how much it has become part of my life. I look forward to all of Jeff and Dave's crazy new ideas. I wonder and care about people I've never met all around the world. I love following the digital chalkies in the rural areas of Australia. I am fascinated by the variety of lives, jobs and things we all do for fun! I love hearing about the mountains, the beaches and the food! It's funny because I really have never loved traveling. I will go somewhere and have a great time, but generally I'm very content where I am  and find incredible beauty and challenge around me all the time. This online world though, is one in which I always love to travel and be with everyone working on these great projects!