Tapped In Newsletter: July 2004
...On the Tapis
July 2004
Issue 80
In This Issue
[1] Member Perspectives
[2] Tapped In Technology Tip
[3] News Nuggets
[4] Tips and Comments From the Experts
[5] About ...On the Tapis
Quote of the Month - "Laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind." - Thomas Jefferson
[1] Member Perspectives
Since December 1998 Tapped In has featured member perspectives. The perspectives, written by Tapped In members who are K-12 teachers, university professors, graduate students, researchers, and leaders of the Tapped In community, have information about who the writer is, what they do and how they have used or plan to use Tapped In. The following are excerpts from several past perspectives. You can view all our past perspectives at http://tappedin.org/tappedin/web/perspectives/. Members are invited to submit perspectives. If you are interested in submitting your perspective, please contact BJ Berquist at bjb@tappedin.org. BJ is the editor of the On the Tapis Newsletter and Tapped In Calendar of events.
Perspective Excerpts
Lesley Farmer, who coordinates the Library Media Teacher Services Credential Program at California State University Long Beach, wrote in 2001, "My own use began as a means to provide continuing education opportunities for all types of librarians across California. Tapped In provides a means to discuss technology issues, such as security, multiculturalism, and assessment." Replying to the question about what she likes about Tapped In, Lesley wrote, "The collegiality of the process, the help of Tapped In folks, the features it provides (recording, posting, organizing thoughts ahead of time), and the real-time interaction in cyberspace so no one need feel remote. And, quite frankly, I like the spontaneity of the process - and surprisingly international participation and insights. Truly an open-ended educational learning environment."
Shunichiro Ito teaches business communications and Internet English at Bunkyo Women's College, Tokyo, Japan. In his 2002 perspective, Shun wrote, "Tapped In makes it possible for non-native speaker teachers to take their students out of the old classrooms to interact in English and to improve their communication skills while meeting interesting people around the world. Two years of wandering in the Internet universe made me realize that there is no other warm and comfortable meeting environment than Tapped In teachers and students for activities of this kind."
Jill Thomas, the K-12 Technology Coordinator for Sesser-Valier School District in Sesser, Illinois, wrote in 2003 that she used Tapped In "as one means of increasing professional development by offering online sessions through TI on a variety of different subjects. After reviewing pre-selected web sites participants are involved in discussions and then on their own time create a product based on the material covered. We then 'meet' back together again and share our product. It has been a successful avenue for learning."
Paul Sparks, the Program Director for the Education Technology doctoral program at Pepperdine University, wrote in his 2003 perspective, "Tapped In is a wonderful tool that allows us to create a sense of shared learning space for our students."
Gail Hoskins, Senior Outreach Coordinator at the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse (ENC) in Columbus OH, pointed out in her 2003 perspective that, "Tapped In is a professional community for educators. I can count on behavior and interests that make me comfortable inviting others to join me there. I particularly appreciate the way members seem to practice the 'presumption of positive intent.' Novice and experienced members alike are careful to project competence on the actions of others. Comments that might be perceived negatively are usually followed with an 'opps, I mean...' Tapped In is a place where we all learn by doing and everyone works to help everyone look good."
In 2004 Glen Bull, co-director of the Center for Technology and Teacher Education at the University of Virginia, wrote about using "Tapped In to support an institute for English teachers on 'Digital Storytelling' and was pleased at how well it worked in that context." About the Tapped In interface, Glen wrote, "The metaphor for use and the user interface must be readily accessible to novice users. Once they have joined Tapped In, the presence of a community of users provides a reason to return. Tapped In has made significant advances on this front in the educational community."
[2] Tapped In Technology Tip
A little traveling music please! (How to use the door icon in TI)
The July 21 Tapped In Festival 2004 will be here soon. You've got comfortable walking shoes and are ready to take in the events scheduled for the Festival, but you're not sure where the events will take place or how to get there from here. This month's tech tip will keep you from getting blisters on those tootsies and make sure you get to the events on time so you can sign in for your Certificate of Participation!
The first thing you have to do is find out where the event(s) will take place. To do that, log in to Tapped In, click on the Tapped In tab at the top of your screen and then click on Calendar (don't forget to set the calendar to your time zone if you haven't already). Scroll down to the BIG DAY (July 21) and click on the name of an event that you'd like to go to. When you click on the name of the event you will see a page with the description of the event, a link to the ID of the presenter, and a door icon next to the name of the room where the event will take place. The door icon is a passageway or link directly to a room. You can click on that door icon to go right to the event room.
Now that you know the location of that event, you can also use the door icons under Featured Passageways in Tapped In Reception to get to an event room. During the Festival there will be Featured Passageways in each Festival room to help you get to the next Festival event. So, sit back, relax, use the door icons to move you to your next event, and enjoy the Festival!
[3] News Nuggets
Tapped In member Jean Michel Chaupart received the medal of "Les Palmes AcadŽmiques" from Mr. Daniel Parfait, Ambassador of France, in front of 108 people in the conference room of the Chamber of Commerce, in Bucaramanga, Columbia.
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Tapped In member Bill Hilton Jr., the discussion leader for Nuts About Nature, is a TV star!
BillHi: You didn't know about my new 4-minute TV spots on the Friday evening news on our local cable channel? I call it--get this--"This Week at Hilton Pond." (Pretty original, no?)
BJB: what is the station?
BillHi: See the note at the bottom of http://hiltonpond.org/ThisWeek040508.html#Anchor-On-49575
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Tapped In member Dafne Gonzalez's article about the online Becoming a Webhead session will appear in the 4th issue of TESOL Essential Teacher. See http://www.tesol.org/pubs/magz/et.html
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NEON (News for Educators Online Now - the West Coast Edition), a newsletter designed to disseminate educational technology announcements and news (see http://www.westedrtec.org/neon/ ), mentioned Tapped In as a resource site related to NETS for Teachers Standard on Professional Development:
NETS for Teachers - Standard V(A): "Teachers will use technology resources to engage in ongoing professional development and lifelong learning."
Related Resource Sites:
TAPPED IN
At this Web site K-12 teachers and librarians, professional development staff, teacher education faculty and students, and researchers engage in professional development programs and informal collaborative activities with colleagues.
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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] Tips and Comments from the Experts
Tapped In member Renata Suzuki posted this message about her article "Diaries as introspective research tools: From Ashton-Warner to Blogs" to the Webheads list, but since so many of the Webheads are Tapped In members, Renata agreed to share her comments with the Tapped In community.
Dear Webheads,
A big thank you to all of you for supporting me in writing my first article, which is now up (with a lot of editing and polishing by Vance Stevens) at http://www.kyoto-su.ac.jp/information/tesl-ej/ej29/int.html
Special thanks to Daf Gonzelez, Vance, Bee Dieu, Bob Brannan, Karen Garcia, Sus Nyrop, Aiden Yeh, Venny Su, Chris Jones, Leah and all of you who took the time to visit my blog and comment, and give me advice on what things might need to go in, and support me emotionally in the process. Please forgive me if I haven't listed you up personally, I am really honored and happy to call myself a webhead and be in such a wonderful group of friends.
Particularly big thanks to Daf, for opening my eyes to the online world of teachers in such a supportive and inspiring way, and to Vance, for believing in me enough to give me this incredible opportunity.
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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.
[7] About ...On the Tapis
Past issues of ...On the Tapis newsletters are available online.
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