Eddie Profile and update

I thought I would fill you in on some of the work that I do for the MoE in New Zealand. Iwas asked to write a bit for a cluster news lettter and thought that this summed it up well.
WHAT JOB DO YOU DO?:
I am the Ministry of Education
contact person for Hive, VLN, Adobe Connect, Moodle, LAMS, Video/Audio Conferencing Bridge,
and the Tandberg Content Server. I manage the contracts for these products on behalf of the MoE. You can find out more at http://www.v6.breezeserver.co.nz/moe
covering technical connectivity issues as well as the implementation of these services for schools and the business arm of the MoE. I have a strong pedagogical focus in the work that I do and the
services for schools and MoE are directly related to better outcomes for children through Ka- Hikitia - Managing for Success as well as 'Enabling the 21st Century Learner' - this is The e-Learning Action Plan for Schools 2006-2010, and outlines the key outcomes and actions for e-learning in the New Zealand school sector for 2006- 2010. It describes the goals for elearning
in schools and the projects, tools, and resources that are being developed to address those
outcomes.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO ELEARNING?:
I discovered computers in the early part of the 1990's and started creating web sites etc. I was then employed part time by The Correspondence School based in Wellington. In the latter part of the 1990's I went full-time at The Correspondence School and was involved in the Esection headed up by Derek Wenmoth. That was where my teaching passion was turned into a passion for technology and the convergence of the face to face teacher with the classroom teacher.
Making it possible for students of all ages to access learning when, where and how they liked either in the face to face environment or the online environment or a mixture of both.
WHAT VISION DO YOU HAVE FOR VIRTUAL LEARNING IN NZ?:
The vision I hold was stated before in a little way and that was "Making it possible for students of all ages to access learning when, where and how they liked either in the face to face environment or the online environment or a mixture of both." This philosophy will I believe
address a number of issues like: equity, teacher shortages, preparing students for the 21st century and beyond, flexibility in learning choices and a whole heap of other issues that need to be addressed in our education system
WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE WEBSITE?:
I could say the VLN of course http://virtuallearning.school.nz but I guess I like a lot of them out there such as, Trade Me, Snapfiles.com, YouTube and a number of others. I tend to get caught up in on line forums about different products etc. that are good for education for example I am exploring Wiz iQ http://www.wiziq.com/ so I am going to get involved with WiZiQ's Meeting Place on Ning "Anyone can teach and learn live, online!" to see what is going on internationally
and whether it is worth pursuing.
eddie.reisch@minedu.govt.nz
I guess that sums me up I will psot more work on the VLN upgrade as things develop. Thee is a fair bit of work going on behind the scenes at the moment.