Tapped In Newsletter: November 1997
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********** ...ON THE TAPIS **********
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Issue # 4 November, 1997
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...ON THE TAPIS is a monthly letter with updates on TAPPED IN and related events. Check out the TAPPED IN web site to learn more.
(Contact us if you forgot your password or login name.)
Quote of the Month:
A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.
-- Henry Brooks Adams
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[1] Reminder! AFTER SCHOOL ONLINE
[2] Math Discussion Time -- Tell us what you think!
[3] The Math Forum
[4] Why TAPPED IN?
[5] What will the Web be like in 10 years? (Part 1)
[6] Congratulations to our 500th member!
[7] About ...ON THE TAPIS
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[1] Reminder! AFTER SCHOOL ONLINE
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December is the second month of AFTER SCHOOL ONLINE. AFTER SCHOOL ONLINE times are Mondays and Tuesdays 3-4 pm (Pacific) 6-7 pm (Eastern). We know December will be hectic with all of the holiday flurry, but give yourself a present and come to one of these sessions.
-El Nino Dec. 9
-Encouraging Girls to pursue math and science Dec. 16 and 22
-More about the Internet Dec. 2, 8, and 23
-Getting TAPPED IN Dec. 1 and 15
The El Nino discussion, led by Mary Pat Horn (one of our associate educators), is continued from November. Nevermind if you weren't able to make the discussion in November, jump in now. Come learn about El Nino and on-going Internet research projects. Learn how to get your class involved.
Encouraging girls to pursue math and science will be led by Dr. Denise Gurer. Denise is a computer scientist, and one of her current projects is establishing a mentoring center for girls in TAPPED IN's Student Activities Center (SAC), called Pathways. The center will be a place where girls can meet women scientists and collaborate with them on science related projects. The goal of this center is to encourage more girls to pursue math and science related careers and learn that science can be fun! Come learn more about this interesting project for students and discuss classroom activities that can spark girls interest in science.
More about the Internet continues by popular demand. Patti Schank and Judi Fusco are available to answer any questions you might have about the Internet. Come discuss different ways teachers are using the Internet in their classrooms, and how you can incorporate it too.
Getting TAPPED IN -- Learn what others are doing here in TAPPED IN, and how you can be a part of it! If you are new to TAPPED IN, or feeling like you could use a bit of a refresher course on what is available in TAPPED IN, then this is a great session for you. This session will be led by Patti Schank, Judi Fusco and Barbara Chriss (associate educator).
If you have any questions, problems, or suggestions about After School Online,
contact us.
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[2] Math Discussion Time
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One of our partners, The Math Forum (see item 3 for more information), will be starting a real-time math discussion period in TAPPED IN. We're still in the planning stages, so if you are interested in participating in a real-time math discussion, then please fill out the survey to indicate your availability and what interests you have. You can fill out the survey on the web by going to http://www.tappedin.sri.com/info/surveys/mathforum.html. If you would rather have a survey emailed to you, then contact us.
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[3] The Math Forum
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As you know, TAPPED IN has several partner organizations, and we're proud to have The Math Forum as one of our partners. Here's a little more information about them.
The Math Forum (http://forum.swarthmore.edu) is a virtual center for math education on the Internet. It is a great resource for people teaching and learning mathematics. The Math Forum is funded by the National Science Foundation.
The Forum hosts a number of projects and activities which include:
Ask Dr. Math, a question and answer activity for K-12 students; the Internet Resource Collection, an annotated and searchable collection of online resources for all levels of mathematics; Problems of the Week for elementary, middle and high school students; Web-based math units that help teachers integrate technology into their math classes; mailing lists and discussion archives for many topics in math and math education; a searchable list of math workshops for teachers; and MORE!
The Math Forum Suite in TAPPED IN can be found on the second floor. For more information about The Math Forum come on by TAPPED IN and talk to DavidW or send email to David Weksler (wex@forum.swarthmore.edu).
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[4] Why TAPPED IN?
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This a new feature we will run in the newsletter for the next several months to answer some of the questions we have been asked about TAPPED IN.
Q. What makes TAPPED IN different from ordinary websites?
A. TAPPED IN is more than a website. When you look at a website you are a passive reader. In TAPPED IN, you can create documents full of new information, leave your opinion about existing documents, and have discussions with others in real-time. TAPPED IN does have a website with a lot of information about who and what we are, and what you can do in TAPPED IN, but once you log in to the community you have a voice and can leave your mark. Our website is a gateway to our community that gives all the information and resources you need to become a member of the community.
Each month we will have a new question and answer about TAPPED IN.
Contact us if you have a question you would like answered
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[5] What Will the Web Be Like in 10 Years? (Part 1)
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Few books take a long-term, strategic view of the Web, with two exceptions: "Release 2.0: A Design for Living in the Digital Age" by Esther Dyson (the current number-two bestseller at amazon.com) and "Net Gain: Expanding Markets Through Virtual Communities" by John Hagel and
Arthur Armstrong. If you want to get an idea of what the Web will be like in 10 years, get these books. Both books emphasize the importance of on-line communities (like TAPPED IN), and the rapid speed at which the network economy will change--the swift will gain an insurmountable lead in terms attracting members, customers, traffic, and business.
Release 2.0 focuses on fundamental changes to come in the network economy in the next 10 years, covering the future of on-line communities, work, education, governance, and user-controlled networks. Dyson describes a future where individuals are in control and big companies play a reduced role. Imagine yourself in 5-10 years browsing an educational software site. As you are about to purchase some software, a TAPPED IN recommendation system warns you that 70% of 10,000 teachers in the community who tried the software didn't find it useful. Wouldn't it be nice to know what your colleagues thought of software before you buy it? And you wouldn't have to do anything special to get this information. This is a possibility that we are exploring for a future TAPPED IN feature.
Stay tuned for next month when we discuss the book Net Gain, and what these books say about communities like ours.
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[6] Congratulations to our 500th member!
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Congratulations to Linda Miller our 500th member!
Linda is a Senior Research Associate at Vanderbilt University.
Now we're getting close to 600! Tell a friend about TAPPED IN.
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[7] About ...ON THE TAPIS
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Postings of all ...ON THE TAPIS issues are available online.
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