Tapped In Newsletter: April 2006
...On the Tapis
April 2006
Issue 101
In This Issue
[1] Member Perspective: Bill Bewley
[2] Helpful Healing for Hearts and Minds
[3] Tapped In Technology Tip
[4] News Nuggets
[5] About ...On the Tapis
Quote of the Month - "Rules are what the artist breaks; the memorable never emerged from a formula." - Bill Bernbach
[1] Member Perspective: Bill Bewley
Bill Bewley is an adjunct instructor at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, CA. He teaches the "Integrating Computers in the Curriculum" course at CLU and occasionally teaches as an adjunct at USC. His full time job is at UCLA, where he's an assistant director in the Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST). He manages research projects on assessment and instructional tools for distance learning.
Bill's Perspective
My first exposure to Tapped In was on a visit to SRI in the late 90s. I was developing a website for teachers and wanted to establish a partnership that would include a connection to TI. SRI wisely decided to partner with another company, but I recognized their wisdom and didn't take it personally, and I've followed the development of Tapped In ever since. When I began teaching the "Integrating Computers" class at CLU in 2003, I was happy to find that Dr. Paul Gathercoal, Professor in the School of Education, was also a fan and an avid user of Tapped In, and we got a big boost when Dr. Terry Cannings, another TI enthusiast, recently joined CLU as Dean of the School of Education. A CLU Building has been added to the campus, and we're looking forward to doing great things using Tapped In.
Read all of Bill's Perspective.
[2] Helpful Healing for Hearts and Minds
For those of you unable to participate in the Hurricane Expo in March, the following excerpts are from transcripts from the event. The special presenters during the Expo gave us all much to think about, many resources to access, and a variety of perspectives on how we can contribute to the healing of hearts and minds. You can access the complete transcripts here.
Timothy Schott, National Weather Service Meteorologist
TimothySc: I think as educators it would be a lifesaving service if you incorporated safety into weather classes. We are losing too many people each year to weather situations such as flash floods.
BjB: Is there information about emergency preparedness on any of the NOAA sites?
TimothySc: Absolutely. This site provides lots of information for all weather hazards and info for emergency plans. In fact NOAA changed our week in May from National Hurricane Awareness Week to National Hurricane Preparedness Week several years ago. Preparedness is not a passive activity! One other ed note--seems like all we hear in the news are disasters. But I hope teachers can also discuss the "wonders" of meteorology, like the water cycle, rainbows, the seasons, etc. I hope you enjoy science as much as I (obviously) do. We need more scientists, who continue less than fairly represented among women.
Barbara Muller-Ackerman addresses PTSS
BarbaraMu: [Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome] surfaces when we are more ready to deal with it...or when we start coming out of the shock or denial that helped to protect us when the trauma happened. What's important for us is to keep routines, be there to listen and to talk, help people find a sense of belonging. Paramount is providing a sense of safety.
BjB hugs Barbara. Thanks...you're validating what we've worked so hard to provide here in Tapped In.
BarbaraMu: Right. The problem with any trauma or disaster is that there are no hard and fast rules...the best we can hope for are guidelines. Having a positive outlook helps kids see the good things in the world around them even in the most challenging times.
Sheila Brennan discusses the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank
SheilaBr: Should I share some ideas for teachers in using the HDMB?
BjB: yes, please do! That would be terrific!
SheilaBr: Well first, is the obvious one: writing a short hurricane story. The stories can be submitted individually by the students, or the teacher may collect them and submit them to HDMB in a group, and we will make a collection out of them. Teachers can send us a disk with the stories and we would upload them together. The contact for HDMB is info@hurricanearchive.org or sbrennan@gmu.edu
Another idea for older students is for them to create a newspaper or other type of publication using stories and images as first-hand accounts from the archive (primary sources). High schools could then compare some of the stories and/or photos in HDMB with some outside media coverage and use the map function to focus in on specific communities or areas. We can't offer complete coverage, but we do have enough geographic diversity for there to be some work with river flow, proximity to ocean and even evacuation stories too. We recently partnered with the Katrina Kids Project, which helped kids heal through drawing at the Reliant Center/Astrodome in Houston.
Linda Ullah - a special Global Project Based Learning
LindaU: This month we are discussing how classes/students/schools can still help those folks who were involved in the Asian Tsunami and the Pakistani earthquake. As you know the people are still in need in these areas...These are regions of the world where people are poor, and we tend to forget their plight months after the trauma of the events. Often people need help long after the event. One ray of goodness that ties all these disasters together is people who've been through disasters helping others. [See this] news article about Indonesian Tsunami survivors helping Katrina survivors. It seems to me that as educators we can foster more of these projects. [See also]
Projects to Help People in Need. This is a list of web resources for helping people still in need OR joining projects to do this. Have any of you found any ideas from these sites that have made you think about how children can help children who have experienced the trauma of these disasters long after the initial event of the disaster itself? If we can involve students in helping others, then maybe there is hope for the world.
Pupils Asking - Teachers Helping (PATH)
DrPatriciB: This discussion will look at how PATH can help in an emergency situation, a bit about PATH's daily operation. Getting prepared for a disaster isn't difficult, however, surviving one without being prepared most certainly can be. Do yourself and your family a favor, and prepare now...while you still have a chance! Let's get specific about you and your student. We here at PATH have developed a Disaster Preparedness Kit which we want to explain and help you to prepare for your own use. By establishing, accumulating and maintaining a Preparedness Kit for each student in your home, you actually prepare for a continuation of normalcy to a degree for your family in such a situation.
JoanW: PATH is uniquely suited to assist during any crisis since our staff is located all over the country - in all time zones, and since our host network is operated full-time. Any location with a computer and Internet access can take advantage of PATH. Most Evacuation Shelters are equipped thusly. In the Katrina/Rita crisis, evacuated students utilized the computer banks created in the Houston and Baton Rouge shelters to help the evacuees locate family members. PATH mobilized its staff and resources as soon as the gravity of the situation was realized and readied itself to meet student needs. Students began to find us with in a few days and we were on the way to helping.
--------------
Please visit the Tapped In Hurricane Central Help Center to view all the resources that have been collected and the discussion topics that have been provided.
[3] Tapped In Technology Tips
Creating and Managing Groups
A new help file on creating and managing groups in Tapped In is linked under the home page help tab (item #5).
Invite Non-Members to Join a Tapped In Group
One convenient feature, which is a recent addition, is "invite to join group." If you own or moderate a group, you can now invite non-members of Tapped In to join the group. This invitation sends the person an email with a link to the registration form, and, if they use the same email address as that in the invitation, they will automatically become part of the group and have the group in their favorite places, etc.
[4] News Nuggets
TI members Lorrie Jackson and Bernie Poole have recently published articles at the Education World site here and here.
--------------
TI member Nancy Willard had two articles published that address cyberbullying. A commentary in Education Week is here and an article in School Library Journal is here.
--------------
TI member Janice S. Frohlich sent this announcement to join Link On Learning: We need content Builders - Teachers, Educators, and Professionals to develop courses for http://linkonlearning.com. You do not need to be a computer expert. We are also seeking people for positions as Online Instructors, Facilitators, and Exam Proctors. For more info, see our detailed video series. This is a great opportunity for teachers, tutors, ESL teachers or skilled professionals to work with our team. All you need is an Internet connection and the ability to work from home and over the phone with our lead instructor. For more info contact us at 1-866-425-3276.
--------------
TI member Dr. Paul M. Hildreth sent info about a book that Chris Kimble and he are putting together. When preparing proposals for this book, a number of papers in this field by members of the TI community were found. The aim for this book is to bring together the expertise of people who have worked with Communities of Practice (CoPs) in authentic educational settings across the world in a convenient, internationally based workbook for people in the field of training and education. Paul and Chris hope that this will become a resource for practitioners and academics that work in the field of CoPs and education. Chapter proposals (500 word outline explaining content) should be sent to Chris Kimble at kimble@cs.york.ac.uk by May 26, 2006. If you have any questions contact Paul at pmhildreth@uwclub.net. The full Call for Chapters and more info can be found here.
--------------
At the annual Teaching for Artistic Behavior event at the March 2006 National Arts Education Association (NAEA), TI member Judy Decker was the first recipient of the Friend of TAB Award. This award states that we [NAEA] are grateful that Judy has provided bridges between our group and many others, connecting art educators with one another to improve teaching and learning.
--------------
TI member Craig Roland's Art room site was listed on Marylaine Block's newsletter called Neat New Stuff I Found This Week. Copyright, Marylaine Block, 1999-2006.
--------------
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.
[5] About ...On the Tapis
Past issues of ...On the Tapis newsletters are available online.
Contact us if you have any questions about your subscription, password or user name, or if you have any news items that you want to share with the community for ...On the Tapis.