Tapped In Newsletter: October 2007

...On the Tapis
October 2007
Issue 119

In This Issue

[1] TI Groups: They're What's Happening!
[2] National C3 Baseline Study
[3] News Nuggets
[4] Tapped In Technology Tips
[5] About ...On the Tapis

Quote of the Month - "While many of us ride out on the frontier of technology in education, most teachers need a comfortable, stable place to have an office and take their classes in privacy. Teachers also need rigorous professional development opportunities online where they can expand their knowledge of technology to further their teaching. Tapped In provides that opportunity, because it bridges the Digital Divide." - TI member Sheryl McCoy

[1] TI Groups: They're What's Happening!

The National Institute of Aerospace (NIA)
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Meet Sharon Bowers in the Science Resource Room on Nov. 6 to travel to the new NIA group room. The NIA room is growing with quality STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) educational resources and opportunities. The National Institute of Aerospace is dedicated to helping teachers use 21st century technology to engage students in learning about 21st century STEM topics. NIA is a non-profit research and graduate education institute located in Hampton, Virginia.

Sharon has asked that the following two eBlasts be shared with the TI community:

* Free Lesson Plans Allow Students to "Master the Science... Master the Game" - Join Nintendo, the National Institute of Aerospace, and Nortel Learnit as they team to help students connect the science behind the fun of the Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl video games. Free online lesson plans help explore the dimensions of time and space using the basic themes of the Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl video games. Students learn 21st Century science topics using 21st Century tools. Click here to download free lesson plans now through the end of Dec. 2007. A classroom activity component is also available, encouraging teachers to submit student products and questions to be answered by science experts. Check this site monthly for new resources and student work. For award-winning, interactive lessons in Math, Science, Language Arts and Life Skills, visit the Pokemon Learning League. For a limited time, access a free Pokemon Learning League trial.

Click here for information on the National Institute of Aerospace.
Click here for information on Nortel LearniT.

* Second Annual 21st Century Explorer Podcast Competition - NASA's space exploration plans make today's students, tomorrow's explorers. As we look toward the future of space exploration, we can learn much by reviewing past successes. "What do you think is NASA's greatest exploration achievement in the past 50 years and why?" is the question that drives the Second Annual 21st Century Explorer Podcast Competition.

Additional info:
- Students may choose to enter either a 60-second audio or video podcast that answers the question above.
- Podcasts created by students ages 11-18 will be entered into one of two divisions: ages 11-14 and ages 15-18. Within each division are two separate categories: audio podcast and video podcast. Only United States citizens may enter this competition and students under 18 need written consent from a parent or guardian.
- This competition runs from October 1 through January 4, 2008. However, the competition ends after the first 1,000 entries are submitted in each category.
- More details and the entry form can be found at the 21st Century Explorer Podcast Competition website.
- This competition is sponsored by the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) in collaboration with NASA.

Fanfiction and Technology
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If you are a middle or high school teacher combining the art of fanfiction with technology to teach creative writing, than this is the group for you. Please join Patricia Pierce on the second Monday of each month to share your success stories and problem areas with this fascinating resource.

AIS Introduces Resources for Native American Heritage Month
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Christine Rose has scheduled American Indian Studies discussions on the last two Thursdays in October and the first two Thursdays in November to help you and your students prepare for the Native American Heritage Month. Included in the discussions will be how to identify appropriate material, provide you with tribally approved lesson plans, know how to deal with stereotypical lesson plans already in place and inspire students to research Native issues.

[2] National C3 Baseline Study

The core mission of the C3 Conference, which was held Oct. 4-5, is to inform the educational community about the ethical, legal, safety, and security implications of technology use and how educators and parents can apply these concepts to their own setting. This year's conference included recent survey findings on ethics, security and the National C3 Baseline Pilot Study. Davina Pruitt-Mental, who leads the monthly TI C3 (Cyberethics, Cybersafety, Cybersecurity) discussions and is participating in the Baseline Pilot Study, has asked the TI community to please contribute ideas and options to educating others about the study and about C3. Email Davina at dpruitt@umd.edu or join the Cyber3 group and post your ideas to the group discussion board. C3 meets on the first Monday of the month in the group room. Click here for more information.

[3] News Nuggets

The U.S. Department of Education and SRI International are conducting a study called the Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning, which aims to identify promising practices in online learning that are associated with increased student achievement. We are looking for developers, administrators, and teachers with experience in K-12 online learning to help us improve our interview protocols for this study. We expect the process to take less than 60 minutes. Please contact Karla Jones at karla.jones @ sri.com (remove spaces) if you would like to participate.
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TI members helped Sharon Harpster get a student from Bulgaria for her web team in the ThinkQuest educational website contest in 2006. Her team is now looking for a student from the Johannesburg, South Africa area and/or the Newent, Glouchestshire, England area. The child must be between 9-11 years old, can be from anywhere outside of the U.S., and can draw well and/or be interested in birds. Being able to take pictures of birds of prey would be a plus. Contact Sharon at harpsters @ knowltonschool.com (remove spaces)
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Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach announced that the 2007 K12Online Conference, about 21st Century teaching and learning skills, is scheduled to be held Oct. 15-19 and Oct. 22-26 of 2007. The conference theme is "Playing with Boundaries." The event is free and allows you to participant as much or as little as you want, whenever, and wherever you feel comfortable. K12Online has a group room in TI where you can meet for text chats during the scheduled conference presentations.
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PBS and WETA, in addition to TI, helped publicize the recent Social Studies Forum discussion on "The War" on the PBS teachers' page.
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TI member Craig Roland's ArtEd Online column in the Oct. 2007 SchoolArts magazine is on The Art of Digital Storytelling.

TI member Pam Stephens has a Student Teacher Survival Guide in the same issue. The topic this month is Appropriate Dress and Appearance.
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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] Tapped In Technology Tip

Tapped In Groups Lobby
There is a featured passageway in TI Reception to the TI Groups Lobby. If you're interested in starting your own group or would like to join a special interest group related to your discipline, this is the place to start! All the groups listed under Featured Passageways in the TI Groups Lobby are open to all visitors. This allows you to visit the group rooms, take a look at the kinds of resources that groups provide for their members, and read the group discussion threads to see what kind of interactions take place among the group members.

Once you've visited one of these group rooms, if you decide that this group is one you'd like to join, just look in the welcome note in the group room for the sentence: This is the group room for (name of group). Click on the green i icon next to the group name and, when you see the group ID page, join or request to join the group. Joining a group allows you to post to the discussion board and introduce yourself to the group members and also adds the group to your drop down favorite places menu. Sometimes a group goes inactive for a period... they're just waiting for your enthusiasm to jumpstart the interest in the topic!

One of the additions that was made to the TI Groups Lobby during a past TI Festival is a comments section. After you've visited a few of the groups, please take a moment to visit "Let's Hear Your Comments" and post your reactions to a specific group or groups. Group owners and members will appreciate the feedback and constructive criticism so they can better meet the needs of the Tapped In community.

[5] About ...On the Tapis

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