Tapped In Newsletter: July 1998
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********** ...ON THE TAPIS **********
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Issue # 10 July, 1998
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...ON THE TAPIS is a monthly letter with updates on TAPPED IN and related events. Check our website to learn more. Contact us if you forgot your password or user name.
Quote of the Month:
"The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself." - Edward Bulwer-Lytton
****Note****
There will be an upgrade to the TAPPED IN server on Friday (7/24/98) at 4pm PST/7pm EST. The server will be down for no longer than one hour. Sorry for any inconvenience.
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[1] Literature & Social Studies in TAPPED IN
[2] Three new suites PALS, KDE and LACOE!!
[3] New to TAPPED IN?
[4] TAPPED IN goes to the White House
[5] Summer in TAPPED IN
[6] Ta Daaaa! TAPestry works better!
[7] About ...ON THE TAPIS
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[1] Literature and Social Studies in TAPPED IN
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This month we’ve had some new topics in TAPPED IN After School Online sessions. A special thanks goes to Michael Hutchison (MichaelAH in TAPPED IN) an award winning, Internet-using Social Studies teacher at Vincennes Lincoln High School in Indiana, led two discussions on combining cable programs with computer applications. Discovery Channel School Online Educator Tish Raff co-hosted the second session with Michael.
Coming up next week is a literature discussion led by BJ Berquist. She will be discussing this year's Newberry Award winner "Out of the Dust" by Karen Hesse. BJ will share her personal teaching philosophy, "Sensory Literacy" as she explains why different inputs are necessary to help a person become truly literate. Join BJ in TAPPED IN on Tuesday, July 28, at 3:30-4:30pm Pacific.
Other sessions remaining this month include:
Thursday, July 23
* Teaching and Playing with LEGO (you loved them as a kid)
3:00-4:00pm Pacific (6:00-7:00pm Eastern)
Tuesday, July 28
* Sensory Literacy Across the Curriculum
3:30-4:30pm Pacific (6:30-7:30pm Eastern)
&
* Using Technology to Improve Educational Practices
6-7pm Pacific (9-10pm Eastern)
Thursday, July 30
* Online courses for credit ... interested?
7:00-8:00pm Pacific (10:00-11:00pm Eastern)
[2] Three new suites: PALS, KDE and LACOE!!
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Visit our new suites on the 2nd floor.
Performance Assessment Links in Science (PALS) is an on-line, standards-based, interactive resource bank of K-12 science performance assessments indexed via the National Science Education Standards and the SCASS Classification plan.
Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) has a suite dedicated to building a statewide on-line community of teachers, students, and support staff to faciliate systemic change and help overcome geographical, social, and technological barriers to change.
Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) will use their suite for the Technology for Learning (TFL) Initiative. This initiative is designed to provide all learners with the workplace skills that will ensure success in a global economy.
[3] New to TAPPED IN? Resources to help.
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Where can you go or who can you ask if you want to find out information about TAPPED IN? Our main web page is a great place to go. We've recently updated it with new information too!
On our main web page are links to the Events Calendar, the schedule of office hours held in TAPPED IN, our NEW mailing lists (announced last newsletter), general information about TAPPED IN and all of its partners, and links to our feedback surveys. Also, if you ever need more information, don't hesitate to email us. Our contact information is also on the website.
[4] TAPPED IN goes to the White House (OSTP)
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On June 15,1998, TAPPED IN director (and reception greeter) Mark Schlager and representatives from the Kentucky Department of Education (Jay Roberts, Tim Smith, and Tom Peterson) and Los Angeles County Office of Education (Justine Germann) were invited to brief Dr. Arthur Bienenstock, Associate Director for Science, Dr. Nora Sabelli, and other Office of Science and Technology Policy staffers on KDE and LACOE plans to use TAPPED IN as part of their professional development communication and collaboration infrastructure. After barely getting through security at the Old Executive Office Building, the briefing went off without a hitch! Our thanks to KDE and LACOE for making a powerful case for the role of on-line communities like TAPPED IN in helping to scale up systemic reform programs. If you would like to learn more about using TAPPED IN to help your organization support ongoing professional development then
contact us.
[5] Summer in TAPPED IN
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Happy Summer! If you haven’t logged into TAPPED IN in a while, you might want to check us out. We have some new features, new partners, and lots of events this summer! Come meet some new colleagues in TAPPED IN from some of our new partners. We now have teachers from Kentucky, Pepperdine University, University of Illinois, and soon Los Angeles County using TAPPED IN (taking classes, and collaborating with colleagues). Here’s a big welcome to new members from the Math Forum, Joint Venture: Silicon Valley, NECC, and ED’s Oasis MasterSearch winners! If we didn’t mention your group by name, and if you are new to TAPPED IN we also say Welcome to you! Take some time to drop by one of our special After School Online sessions for new members.
[6] Ta Daa! TAPestry now works on Netscape 3 and 4 on both Mac and Windows!!!
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We did some detective work, and found a work around for a bug in Netscape 4.05 on the Mac, so TAPestry now works fine with Netscape 3.01 and above on both Mac and Windows. (For the techies who are interested: calls to the requestFocus method on a TextArea object when using Netscape 4.05 crashes your Mac! TAPestry no longer makes such calls, and we reported the bug to Netscape).
[7] About ...ON THE TAPIS
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if you have any questions about your subscription, login name or password, or if you have any news items that you want to share with the community for ...ON THE TAPIS.