Tapped In Newsletter: April 2004
...On the Tapis
April 2004
Issue 77
In This Issue
[1] Member Perspective: Marianne Handler
[2] News Nuggets
[3] Tips and Comments From the Experts
[4] Tapped In Technology Tip
[5] TI Group Profile: AAMU Writing Project
[6] Project WHIRL Workshop with Handhelds
[7] About ...On the Tapis
Quote of the Month - "We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee." - Marian Wright
[1] Member Perspective: Marianne Handler
Marianne Handler is a professor in the Technology in Education Program at National-Louis University. She has been teaching in that program as a full-time faculty member since 1989. Prior to that she was an adjunct in the program while filling her role as Library-Learning Center Director in the Glencoe, Illinois public schools. She was a member of the Glencoe School faculty for twenty-two years before becoming a full-time teacher educator.
She has co-authored two editions of Multimedia as a Student Tool: A Guide for Teachers and co-edited The Many Faces of School-University Collaboration: Characteristics of Successful Partnerships.
Marianne's Perspective
The power of online real-time communications became clear to me as early as 1979 while working with third graders. After students read a book by the author we would meet online they planned the questions they hoped to ask. Then online they would ask the questions and 'hear the author's voice' in a new way. What an amazing experience that was for all of us!! The impact on those early days stayed with me as my work with students and their teachers continued.
I began using Tapped In (the first version) during our program's first course for teachers on how to integrate this new tool, the Internet, was developed. We used it to bring in experts and new voices and to allow teachers, who might not have been able to join us, become a part of our class. We had two teachers from Alaska (during the 90s) who joined us in the summer on campus but who participated in the telecommunications class by joining us through Tapped In, and an LCD projector. It was an eye-opening experience for the F2F class and helped these folks from far away become a part of our learning community.
Read all of Marianne's Perspective online.
[2] News Nuggets
One of Jim Levin's doctoral students, Melissa Smith, explored the uses of Tapped In as an online bridge between working American Sign Language interpreters, student ASL interpreters, and the Deaf community, as a major project in an advanced seminar Jim led during Winter Quarter. Melissa was able to tap into a surprisingly rich niche for interaction among student American Sign Language interpreters, working ASL interpreters, and members of the Deaf community. She documents this in her paper for the seminar: http://tepserver.ucsd.edu/courses/tep297/wi04/MS.tep297fnl.doc
Melissa thinks the Tapped In interface makes sense for anyone who has a vested interest in communication for deaf and hard of hearing people and she invites teachers who teach deaf children to contact her at MBSmith@palomar.edu for more information about joining this dynamic group.
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Tapped In staff member and helpdesk volunteer BJ Berquist was recently featured in an article in her local newspaper, The Perry County Times. See http://www.perrycountytimes.com/content/headlines/041504c.htm
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Tapped In member Kevan Nitzberg's latest collaborative piece with Ian Clothier, lead editor at art-themagazine.com, is entitled "Line of Flight." This Flash animation is viewable at: http://www.art-themagazine.com/pages/insite18.htm
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Tapped In members Nancy White, Bronwyn Stuckey, and John D. Smith have written chapters in "Knowledge Networks: Innovation through Communities of practice," which has just been published. See http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/mis/KNICOP/ToC.html
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Tapped In member Linda A. Maxwell, Education Specialist, Smithsonian American Art Museum is holding a special asynchronous chat on American Folk Artist Minnie Evans. To participate in this discussion, you must join the Minnie Evans Folk Artist Group and enter the discussion that will be held via the discussion board in the group room. Linda has placed several online museum resources in the group room. To join a group in Tapped In, see this month's Technology Tips.
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Tapped In member James Simpson's PhD thesis (Reading, 2003, funded by the ESRC), entitled Discourse and computer-mediated communication: A study of an online community, concerns how CMC relates to language learning, discourse analysis, and literacy. James has included information about Tapped In in Chapter Two. See http://www.education.leeds.ac.uk/research/james_simpson.htm.
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Tapped In member Jeff Cooper has an archive of the audio/video tour of Tapped In he did at Learning Times Network. See http://home.learningtimes.net/learningtimes?go=185495
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The April issue of School Arts contains an article about teaching students to draw reasonable conclusions about artworks by TI member Pam Stephens and a web review of Greenmuseum.org, a nonprofit online museum of environmental art dedicated to improving our relationship with the natural world, by TI member Craig Roland.
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The April issue of Learning and Leading with Technology has an article on Taking the Plunge-Project Based Learning by TI member Diane McGrath.
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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.
[3] Tips and Comments From the Experts
BjB: I'm a helpdesk volunteer for Tapped In. Did you have any questions?
Kathleen: No. Not yet. Thanks anyway. I'm new and will be perusing the site for a few minutes.
BjB: great. Please holler if you need anything
Kathleen: Thanks again. Pleasant to have such a nice greeting coming into a new area.
April is National Volunteer Recognition Month. The Tapped In Volunteers are an extraordinary and very valued asset of the Tapped In community. The Tapped In volunteers are the people who greet you when you log in, the people who lead the events scheduled on the calendar, the people who facilitate the discussions and the people who help you find answers to your questions. The next time you see a volunteer, be sure to thank them for all they do. And, if you're interested in joining this special group of Tapped In members, send an email to bjb@tappedin.org.
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Tapped In member Pam Stephens, Chair of Art Education at Northern Arizona University, sends this note: I require my elementary and secondary concepts classes to attend a minimum of two ASOs. They are always pleased with the programs and bring new insights to the class.
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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.
[4] Tapped In Technology Tip
Joining a Group
Only Tapped In members can join a group and only group members can enter a group room. Many of the events that are scheduled on the calendar are supported by group resource rooms which contain files, links and a discussion board to facilitate communication among group members. To join a group in Tapped In, log in and go to the SEARCH tab in the top right of the screen. Click on the GROUPS tab and enter the group name or topic you are looking for. When you press the FIND IT button you will get a list of matches. Go to the group identity page (click on the name of the group next to the green i icon). At the top of the group identity page will be a place to join or request to join the group. Once you submit this information you will receive email confirmation of your group membership. When membership is confirmed (if the group is public, this confirmation is automatic) the group name will be added to the Favorite Places menu and you will have direct access to the group room.
[5] TI Group Profile: AAMU Writing Project-by Sandra Shattuck
The Alabama A&M University (AAMU) Writing Project is one of 175 sites under the auspices of the National Writing Project, a federally funded, faculty development program in existence since 1973. The AAMU Writing Project group at Tapped In started as a site for participants of the Summer Invitational Institute, which took place in June '03 on the Alabama A&M campus. The technology liaison and I set up the Tapped In office well in advance and then presented the technology during an online meeting that took place in a computer lab. The teacher consultants, as the graduates of the Summer Institute are called, decided that online monthly meetings might help us keep our writing community connected across the different school districts. The first few meetings quickly indicated that other Tapped In members were interested in the topic of writing, and I began to see that the group could serve as an online writing support community. That's when our monthly meetings took on the name, WriteTalk.
WriteTalk now functions as a place for Tapped In members to discuss their professional writing in whatever form (progress report, grant application, lesson plan, course evaluation, dissertation proposal, conference paper, journal article) and at whatever stage (brainstorming, drafting, revising, editing, publishing). We also discuss writing pedagogy and welcome teachers in all disciplines, primarily because one of the main tenets of the National Writing Project is that writing serves as a powerful tool for learning and teaching -in any subject area. Check out the emphasis on writing in the principles and standards developed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, for just one example.
Our discussions have focused on a variety of writing, from the draft of the text for a digital story, to the revision of a seminar paper into an article, to a website aimed at teen poets. Our conversations range from fear of writing, to how to deal with a teacher's writing expectations, to the conventions of a book review, to brainstorming about how to carve out more time for writing. During our last meeting, we tried an impromptu collective online freewrite, and that led to a month-long commitment from the participants to do more regular writing using prompts for timed writing practice.
WriteTalk, like many Tapped In groups, I suspect, continues to morph its way into addressing the participants' collective needs, ideas, and creativity. If you have any desire to talk about your professional writing or about writing in the classroom, come join us as we morph on!
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Tapped In currently has over 600 groups. To have your group featured in this new Tapis column, please contact BJ at bjb@tappedin.org For more information on how to join a group see this month's Technology Tip.
[6] Project WHIRL Workshop with Handhelds
The Project WHIRL (http://projectwhirl.org) team invites you to attend a hands-on workshop with handhelds, Wireless Handhelds for Improving Reflection on Learning in Your Classroom, on Sat., June 19. The workshop is part of the NECC 2004 program in New Orleans, June 19-23.
In this workshop, you'll receive software that you and your students can use in science, and learn how to use the software to better understand what your students know and can do (i.e. formative assessment). Education researchers and teachers co-designed the software. While the software was designed for science, teachers are using it in language arts, social studies, and math classes at the elementary level. We will be giving away several of the software applications to all workshop participants!
For details, see the description in the NECC program at http://center.uoregon.edu/conferences/ISTE/NECC2004/program/search_results_details.php?sessionid=254955
[7] About ...On the Tapis
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