Tapped In Member Perspectives: Meet Karen Campbell

Karen is the instructional technology supervisor for Harrisonburg City Public Schools in Virginia. A member since 2003, she uses TappedIn to support professional development for the teachers in her division.

Karen's Perspective

I have been working with teachers to help them use technology effectively for the past 10 years. It is exciting to consider how technology has changed during that time and to wonder what may be coming in the next 10 years. For the past five years I have been involved with Tapped In both as a participant and as a facilitator, and I find it an engaging and effective way for educators to share ideas and resources.

Through an Enhancing Education Through Technology grant, teachers in our area have the opportunity to demonstrate mastery of the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS*T) by building an electronic portfolio. To support teachers in this endeavor, I offer a graduate-level course that focuses on the effective integration of technology to enhance instruction. Tapped In is a great resource to compliment our face-to-face meetings. The discussion board allows us to extend discussions beyond the walls of our classroom. I have found that some class members who rarely speak out in class are active participants in the discussion board as they have time to consider their response before posting. The discussion board also allows us to share the ideas that develop as we reflect on the class discussions at a later time.

Tapped In offers many ways for teachers to share in an online community. The After School Online sessions cover a wide range of topics and this is a good way to introduce teachers to online professional development. I recently received an email from a teacher who had just participated in one of these sessions, and she was excited to try some of the resources that were shared during the discussion.

It is exciting to be involved as teachers gain an understanding of why online communities can be so engaging for their students and begin to visualize the educational possibilities.