Tapped In Newsletter: April 2002
...ON THE TAPIS
April 2002
Issue 53
In This Issue
[1] Thank you TAPPED IN Volunteers
[2] Member Perspective: Vance Stevens
[3] TAPPED IN Member News Nuggets
[4] Publications praise TAPPED IN
[5] Technology Tips
[6] About ...On the TAPIS
Quote of the Month - "We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give." - Winston Churchill
[1] Thank you TAPPED IN volunteers!
Discussion leaders, helpdesk volunteers, and members who offer advice and answer questions for their fellow participants in TAPPED IN all embody the volunteer spirit that is the foundation of the success of the TAPPED IN Community. April is volunteer recognition month and a perfect time to thank the many people who make our community what it is. The next time a TAPPED IN volunteer answers your questions or leads a discussion, be sure to give them a big THANK YOU!
[2] Member Perspective: Vance Stevens
Vance is a media specialist living in Abu Dhabi, UAE. He leads the weekly Writing for Webheads: World friendship thru online language learning discussion group at TAPPED IN.
Vance's Perspective
I consider myself a teacher of English as a Second Language, having done that for the first 20 years of my career. I have been keenly interested in how computers facilitate the process of language learning since 1979, and my most recent jobs have involved management roles in CALL (Computer Aided Language Learning) and Self-Access Lab management. In 1995 I took up a 2-year position with an educational software company and it was at that time that, in order to keep my hand in teaching, I started a writing course online.
See all our member perspectives.
[3] TAPPED IN Member News Nuggets
John Steele's dissertation, "Herding Cats: A Descriptive Case Study of a Virtual Language Learning Community" can be accessed at the following two sites: HTML Version and PDF Version.
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The April 2002 edition of the GEC Computers in the Classroom newsletter is now online at http://www.gecdsb.on.ca/d&g/Apr02/. Included in the newsletter is TAPPED IN member Loretta Weiss-Morris' April Fool's Day "Terrible Training Tips!". See http://quicktrainingtips.com/AprilFool-2002.htm.
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Laurie Williams, TAPPED IN member and the English Area manager of KIDLINK, is co-presenting at NECC with Dr. Judi Harris about their WINGS Online program for new teachers. See http://emissary.ots.utexas.edu/wings/. Laurie is also doing a poster session on research she's been doing about teachers integrating online projects for the first time and is co-presenting a KIDLINK Birds-of-a-Feather with TAPPED IN member Bonnie Thurber.
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John Elfrank-Dana is doing a presentation at NECC about "Serving Up Data on Your School Web Site" using FrontPage.
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Vance Stevens recently presented "Theory Meets Practice in CALL" at the CALICO Conference in California and ESL_Home (see http://www.geocities.com/vance_stevens//esl_home.htm) at the TESOL Conference in Utah. Several TAPPED IN members, including, Elizabeth Hanson-Smith, and Webheads Dafne Gonzalez, Susanne Nyrop, Arthur McKeown, John Steele, Teresa Almeidad'eca, Nigel Caplan, and Keiko Schneider participated online or f2f in the presentations.
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Do you have a News Nugget about yourself or another member of the TAPPED IN Community? Send your News Nugget to BJ Berquist at bjb @ tappedin.org.
[4] Publications praise TAPPED IN
TAPPED IN member Jim Forde, facilitator of the edtechnot.com discussion group that meets in TAPPED IN on the first Monday of the month, has written an article for the New England Middle School Organization Newsletter. Jim concludes his article with:
"I am a pretty big supporter of and skeptic of educational technology but I think that this website warrants a peek. I have had unsuccessful experiences in the past with live chat and listservs but find this space refreshingly teacher friendly. I hope you will feel the same way! Maybe I'll see you on-line?"
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New member Michael Swenson found TAPPED IN highly recommended in the "Aiming High" publication distributed by the California Department of Education. See http://www.cde.ca.gov/shsd/aimhigh/.
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TAPPED IN is mentioned in the TESOL Journal, Vol 10, 4 Winter 2001.
[5] Technology Tips
Time-Zone-Friendly Calendar
Even if you are not time-zone challenged, the recent switch by many countries to daylight savings time was enough to put the fear of the Time God Chrono in the hearts of the stoutest of our international TAPPED IN membership! To help you determine when a TAPPED IN event is scheduled, the calendar includes several different time zones. Please remember that when you first visit the calendar, all times are shown in the default format of US Pacific Time. Just click on YOUR time zone to have the events shown in your time.
Advanced Tech Tip of the Month: After School Online Emailer
Whether it's a time zone conflict or a busy personal schedule that prevents you from participating in an ASO discussion, TAPPED IN members can still read the transcript of the missed event. Transcripts of most events posted on the calendar are archived in the After School Online Transcript Emailer a day or two after the event. To retrieve a transcript, go to the ASO and click on the Transcript Emailer. Then choose the year and then the month of the missed event. When you click on the title of the event, the transcript will be emailed to you.
[6] About ...On the TAPIS
Postings of all ...ON THE TAPIS issues are available on the TAPPED IN website. Contact us if you have any questions about your subscription, password or user name, or if you have any news items that you want to share with the community for ...ON THE TAPIS.