Tapped In Newsletter: December 2003

...On the Tapis
December 2003
Issue 73

In This Issue

[1] Member Perspective: Mary Thompson
[2] Tips and Comments From the Experts
[3] Tapped In Technology Tip
[4] We have met the professionals and they are us!
[5] News Nuggets
[6] Pre-service Science Teachers Research Internship
[7] About ...On the Tapis

Quote of the Month - "Sometimes our fate resembles a fruit tree in winter. Who would think that those branches would turn green again and blossom, but we hope it, we know it." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

[1] Member Perspective: Mary Thompson

Mary Thompson teaches pre-service teacher technology courses at the University of Houston and conducts an online technology integration course for 100 student educators in their first semester of field-based placement.

Mary's Perspective
I literally stumbled across Tapped In as I was searching for professional development opportunities for students in my very first online course. I teach pre-service teacher technology courses at the University of Houston and conduct an online technology integration course for 100 student educators in their first semester of field-based placement. These students have been introduced to basic technology tools in previous semesters and are in their last semester of coursework before embarking on student teaching. I feel that this is the perfect time to introduce them to online opportunities for furthering their understanding of the profession that is teaching and how modern technologies can enable them to advantage themselves of resources that might otherwise be unavailable. Tapped In is the perfect resource for developing this understanding.

Read all of Mary's Perspective on our member perspectives page.

[2] Tips and Comments From the Experts

This month's column Tips and Comments from the Real Experts: the Members of Tapped In, features members' reflections on and use of Tapped In.
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Lynne Wolters reports that, in a magazine article review that mentioned Tapped In, an undergrad student from Concordia University, College of Education, Portland, OR explains TI2 as "a chat room on steroids."
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Debra Sprague, discussion leader for the monthly Publishing Your Work, logged in to Tapped In to let whoever was on duty know she was bringing in a large group. In a follow-up email she commented, "I think it is professional courtesy to let the Help Desk know that so they know what to expect. The people in the workshop enjoyed Tapped In."
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The following comments were made during the Library of Congress Learning Page Chat on Native Americans:

  • It's given me some great ideas.
  • Wow these are some great resources. I'm getting so many ideas just by looking at these urls.
  • This is some good, exciting material.
  • Effective teaching is all about gaining students' interest which could easily be done with the information provided on these sites.
  • Now I know why our instructor instructed us to visit.
  • Textbooks write what they want you to know...very political...LOC gives you just the facts!!
  • There is so much out there. There's really no excuse for me not to present an engaging lesson with all these resources at my disposal.
  • All these resources will make my job a lot easier.
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    If you have a comment or experience to share with the Tapped In community, please submit the information to BJ Berquist at bjb@tappedin.org.

    [3] Tapped In Technology Tip

    Bringing K-12 Students to the Student Activity Center
    Since the opening of the K-12 Student Activity Center (SAC) there are now 40 groups and almost 1000 student accounts! Setting up a group room in the SAC is easy and can be done through the Tapped In tab/Groups/Create a New K-12 Student Group. Setting up the accounts for your students is included in the group creation process and allows you to designate a password and individual student usernames. The SAC environment and the Student Accounts are designed to provide the most secure setting for you, your students and the Tapped In Community. Read more about student accounts and be sure to read our Terms for Bringing K-12 Students Online.

    [4] We have met the professionals and they are us!

    As Tapped In approaches an international membership of 10,000, and because helpdesk volunteers and administrators can't always be online, the burden of monitoring behavior and maintaining the exceptional professional standards we have all come to expect from all Tapped In users within the community falls on the community members. If you experience any guest or member who is rude or inappropriate, please take a few steps to ensure that this person knows that Tapped In is a place for educators and that only professional behavior will be accepted. Then follow through by identifying the guest or member and relaying the information to Tapped In administration.

    To identify a guest, first highlight their name under the ONLINE tab to the left of the chat window. Then go to the Actions drop down menu in the top right of the chat window and scroll down to Show Login Info. Once this information has been entered in your chat window, go back to the Actions menu and send your chat to the pasteboard. Highlight the login information and any of the transcript text that includes the inappropriate behavior, copy and then paste to an email to http://tappedin.org/contact. Once you have done this, if the guest is still logged in, type /ignore nameofguest. This will prevent you from seeing any text that the guest sends.

    If the offending person is a member, please remind them that Tapped In has a Code of Professional Conduct. If rude behavior continues, send the username and a copy of the offensive chat text to http://tappedin.org/contact. You can use the /ignore command to block any additional messages from this member.

    [5] News Nuggets

    See http://www.museumfortextiles.on.ca/cloth_clay/home.html to view the November 2003 School Arts Magazine that has a Web Review by Tapped In member Craig Roland on Cloth and Clay: Communicating Culture.
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    See http://www.readingmatrix.com/articles/hanson-smith/index.html to view Tapped In member Elizabeth Hansen-Smith's article, Reading Electronically: Challenges and Responses to the Reading Puzzle in Technologically-Enhanced Environments, in the November 2003 online journal The Reading Matrix.
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    See http://www.homestead.com/prosites-vstevens/files/efi/papers/vlrc/portal.htm to view the link from the Military Language Institute site to the Virtual Learning Resource Center new portal, which Tapped In member and Webheads discussion leader Vance Stevens has made into an article for TESL-EJ.
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    Rosemary Harris, Tapped in member and discussion leader for The Frugal Educator will be presenting The Frugal Educator as a 1 hour breakout session (see http://www.macul.org/ for more info) at the 2004 MACUL Conference in Grand Rapids, MI in mid-March.
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    Tapped in members Kevan Nitzberg (ArtsConnected) and Craig Roland will be presenting at the April National Art in Education Association Conference. Their topic is Students Researching Art on the Internet. The use of the Internet as a tool for conducting remote research opens up new avenues for supporting student independent learning in the art classroom-particularly in the areas of art criticism, art history, and art appreciation.
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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.

    [6] Pre-service Science Teachers Research Internship

    The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Department of Energy have a program for pre-service science teachers to participate in a 10-week science research internship at NREL in Golden, Colorado over the summer. This is a paid internship with many other perks and allowances. This opportunity is available to any teacher candidates that may be interested in participating in this exciting program (pre-service science, math, and technology teachers are eligible as undergraduate or graduate students). The program also offers weekly professional development opportunities and university credit. To learn more see http://www.scied.science.doe.gov/scied/PST/about.htm.

    [7] About ...On the Tapis

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