Elluminate Taps Classroom 2.0 Founder for New LearnCentral™ Network

Business Wire, June 23, 2009

Social Networking Pioneer Steve Hargadon Helps Build Unique Online Community for Education

PLEASANTON, Calif. -- Elluminate, Inc., a leading provider of web, audio and video solutions for real-time online learning and collaboration, announced today that it has hired Classroom 2.0 founder Steve Hargadon as the company’s first Social Learning Consultant. In his new role, Hargadon helped create and will moderate the Elluminate-sponsored LearnCentral™ social learning network for education, which will be announced formally at the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) 2009, held June 28 through July 1 in Washington, D.C.

A recognized pioneer and change agent in the area of social networking for educators, Hargadon is also the director of the K12 Open Technologies Initiative at the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), and a columnist for School Library Journal. He is a frequent blogger, podcaster and webinar host who covers a wide variety of topics, including Web 2.0, educational technology and social networking. The creation of this unique position and the hiring of Hargadon emphasizes Elluminate’s leading role in the transformation of teaching and learning worldwide.

Social Networking and Education

In 2007, Hargadon founded Classroom 2.0, a community for educators interested in using Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies. As an Elluminate Community Partner, Hargadon used the company’s Elluminate Live!® virtual classroom to hold online professional development events to address the isolation faced by many educators, creating an environment that changed education practices and created a sense of community. Recently Classroom 2.0 celebrated the milestone of reaching 25,000 members, validating the founder’s belief in the pedagogical value of social networking and Web 2.0 tools.

As Classroom 2.0 continues to grow as a viable community, Hargadon will now focus on his role as moderator and facilitator within LearnCentral, which represents the next logical step of combining the social networking of Classroom 2.0 and the ability to store, organize and find educational resources with live, online meeting and collaboration provided by Elluminate technology.

“While Classroom 2.0 is specifically about the use of Web 2.0 in education, LearnCentral takes the same concept and makes it possible across all curricular contexts,” explained Hargadon. “We are doing something really significant in Classroom 2.0, but there is no easy way to share content like lesson plans or for educators to find each other based on curricular interests, specialties, grade levels or geography.”

“Although we think a social network of 25,000 is a lot today, with the LearnCentral concept, we are looking at potentially hundreds of thousands of members,” Hargadon added. “There will always be a lot of social networks, but LearnCentral is a different kind of network that I believe will make a significant historical difference in how educators work together for professional development in their own careers. I love being a part in making this happen.”

“In 2007, Elluminate began envisioning a community where educators could connect with subject matter experts and others who shared their interests, submit and rate educational content, create discussion spaces, attend online events, and use Elluminate technology for real-time collaboration,” said Maurice Heiblum, President, Elluminate, Inc. “We are thrilled to have a social networking and educational technology guru like Steve Hargadon on board to help us make our vision a reality.”

Elluminate at NECC 2009

This year with the help of Hargadon, Elluminate will expand its visibility significantly during the four-day event.

• Created by Hargadon in 2006, EduBloggerCon is an international gathering or "meetup" of educational bloggers and those using social media and collaborative technologies in education held in association with an educational technology conference. Based on the idea of an “unconference,” the corresponding NECC event takes place onsite the Saturday before the conference or virtually via Elluminate Live!
• Another Hargadon brainchild, NECC Unplugged provides a forum and resource for those interested in presenting informally at the conference or generating content for remote users. NECC Unplugged is held onsite during the conference and online in Elluminate, which enables the live streaming of all local and virtual presentations.
• Hargadon is also formally leading or speaking at six sessions on topics that include “The State of Open Source Software in Education,” “Build Your Own Social Network of Community,” and “What is the Role of Web 2.0 in Schools?”
• In addition, Elluminate will be exhibiting in booth #3542, where company representatives will demonstrate the recently announced enhancements to the Elluminate Learning Suite™, including Elluminate Live! V9.5 and Elluminate Plan!™ V2, as well as LearnCentral.