Tapped In Newsletter: October 2000
...ON THE TAPIS
October 2000
Issue 35
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In This Issue
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[1] WebCT hosts 3 special events this month in TAPPED IN
[2] Welcome Back Society of Women Engineers!
[3] What others are saying about us...
[4] SIG Gem of the Month
[5] Member Perspective - Phil Harrison
[6] Online Teaching and Learning Newsletter
[7] Technology Tips
[8] About ...On the TAPIS
Quote of the Month
"The Greek word for leisure was scholê, whence our school. For leisure meant to them opportunity for pursuits of intrinsic worth, such as a man would choose for his own sake" - de burgh
[1] WebCT hosts 3 special events this month in TAPPED IN
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Normally announcements like this go in our Calendar, but WebCT organized these special events after our Calendar was emailed to you. We wanted to make sure you knew about these events!
Monday 10/23 7:00pm ET
GUEST: Ted Nellen
TOPIC: Authentic Assessment is Better Assessment
Ted Nellen, Authentic Assessment is Better Assessment - Using the web to promote scholarship: make it public, peer review, pass it on, allows teachers to explore the ways that the internet can provide more efficient assessment that informs instruction instead of the current form of high stakes assessment that tends to drive instruction. Ted, Cybrarian, for TaskStream is an online teacher for Classroom Connect University and New School University.
Thursday, 10/26 8:30pm ET
GUEST: Tom Nickel, Utah State University, Instructional Design
TOPIC: Learning via Webcasting
Statewide K-12 groups have begun setting up streaming servers that allow for the construction of rich multimedia learning environments. Join Tom and some of his teaching colleagues from the state of Utah as they highlight the benefits of streaming media in online learning. Participants will discuss the design and effectiveness of these environments, as well as take a brief tour of some working models.Tom Nickel is currently a Doctoral candidate in Instructional Technology at Utah State University. He has developed and led a 12-credit Distance Learning Endorsement Program for the Utah State Office of Education.
Sunday 10/29 7:00pm ET
GUEST: Jean Armour Polly, aka Netmom
TOPIC:The Internet Kids and Family Yellow Pages
Jean Armour Polly is the author of The Internet Kids & Family
Yellow Pages (Osborne McGraw-Hill, now in its fifth edition, October, 2000), a family-friendly directory to thousands of the Internet's best children's resources. Under her Net-mom brand, she also writes weekly columns for the Ask Jeeves for Kids Web site and for FamilyClick.com. More about Jean is available at her current home page.
See our November Calendar for information on more upcoming WebCT events (here's a teaser):
GUEST: Gary Obermeyer, Learning Options
TOPIC: Professional Development Online
GUEST: Jim Woodell, SchoolChange.net
TOPIC: Think. Talk. Work. Change. How to Make a Difference Online
GUEST: Dickie Selfe, Clemson University
TOPIC: Electronic Communication: Inside a Professional Development
Workshop
To keep up-to-date with all that WebCT offers in their education
community, subscribe to the Education Community Month At A Glance
(MAAG). MAAG is published the first Wednesday of each month and
features updates and teaching tips for our free, live online events hosted by well known educators. MAAG also lets you know about new and unique resources for K-12 teachers and pre-service teachers, conference reviews and updates, publishing opportunities and more.
[2] Welcome Back Society of Women Engineers!
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Beginning on October 16th, volunteers from the University of Wisconsin's Society of Women Engineers (SWE) will again be volunteering at the HelpDesk and offering discussion topics. The SWE has a mission to encourage women to achieve full potential in careers as engineers and leaders, expand the image of the engineering profession as a positive force in improving the quality of life and demonstrate the value of diversity. We're very glad they're back in TAPPED IN to talk with our members (and K-12 students through special arrangement--contact us if you are interested).
[3] What others are saying about us...
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The current issue of Information Searcher, a newsletter for the Internet and curriculum/technology integration in schools edited by TAPPED IN member Pam Berger, contains a featured article by TAPPED IN's Associate Educator, BJ Berquist. "A Day in the Life of a Cybrarian: 36 Hours = 1 Day" will be the topic of a TAPPED IN discussion led by Pam and BJ on October 26 at 4pm PDT/7pm EDT. You can read the article online at http://www.infosearcher.com/features05.htm
[4] SIG Gem of the Month
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This month’s gem is from the K-3 Resources discussion:
KarenRL says, ". . . But, I'm going to tell you, I certainly appreciate your hard work. And when I share your sites with my colleagues, they appreciate the information, too. Keep going, Chris. I'll support you in any way I can."
Special Interest Group (SIG) Discussions try to meet the needs and address the issues of specific groups of educators. Currently active groups include the Social Studies Forum, Technology in the Classroom, KIKO, Foreign Language, Targeting Librarians!, WebQuests, K-3 Resources, School Administrators, Alternative/Correctional Ed, ArtsSites, PAarts, and School Counselors.
Read the transcripts of past discussions in the TAPPED IN archives and join us for the next session. Register for the MEET ME mail list http://www.tappedin.org/mailman/listinfo/meetme/ to receive the weekly/monthly topics for each discussion group.
[5] Member Perspective - Phil Harrison
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Phil Harrison (aka PhilH) is Manager of Educational Programs at Computer Master Institute of New Media and Internet Technologies, in Victoria, BC Canada. (http://www.computermaster.com). He has been involved with the school since its inception in 1995, both as a trainer and a coordinator of training. In addition to working full time, Phil is busy completing his Masters of Business Administration in Digital Technologies Management at Royal Roads University. In fact, he is so busy that he often neglects his social duties (logging in and chatting with the folks at TAPPED IN) but he is trying very hard to reform his life.
I discovered TAPPED IN in July 1999 during a personal search for MUD-like communities with a focus on education. The search eventually led to TAPPED IN. From the moment I logged in I knew I was "home". I immediately applied for a membership, then went in as a guest to look around. BJ Berquist, who had been a member for a year and a half, greeted me. You would think by the extent of her knowledge that she actually built the place. Before the first day was over I had an office and was beginning to experiment with objects. After a few weeks I began to expand with other rooms and to experiment with ASCII graphics. Eventually I learned how to do room graphics and . . . well, come and visit W1215 anytime to see how it all evolved. I have experienced many pleasant and informative get-togethers with my collaboratives at TAPPED IN. Becoming a member here has not only been enjoyable and instructive but also a defining experience; it has given me a very real sense of belonging to a global community. You might even say I have become an evangelist for TAPPED IN. Everyone I meet who has even a remote connection to the field of education receives a prolonged discourse on the benefits of membership.
Read all our member perspectives.
[6] Online Teaching and Learning Newsletter
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Delivered every Tuesday via email, Murray Goldberg's Online Teaching and Learning Newsletter is an electronic publication written for all online educators and students. Dealing with general issues of web-based pedagogy, the OTL Newsletter contains
a.. information about upcoming conferences and reflections on past conferences
b.. updates on ongoing discussions on well-known listservs
c.. detailed reviews of websites, software, and education technology tools
d.. contributions from online educators who share their teaching methods and strategies, and
e.. commentaries on online teaching and learning from Murray Goldberg, President of WebCT Canada
You can subscribe on the e-Learning Hub at http://webct.com/communities/service/selectnewsletters
[7] Technology Tips
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Did I miss the appointment?!
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There are two ways you can find out when the person you are meeting was last logged in. You can type: /ID membername or you can type: @lastlog membername. Both of these will show you when the person you are meeting was last logged in to TAPPED IN and let you know if you missed them.
Text clients and IRC-parsing mode
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Do you enjoy the ease of Say mode in TAPestry, but wish that you could use a text client and have the same convenience? Well you can! If you are using a text client, try the IRC mode type /irc-on the next time you log into TAPPED IN (if you don't like it type /irc-off to turn it off). If you do like it, type @user-options +irc_parsing to turn the IRC mode on permanently.
If you don't know about text clients, they offer an alternative to TAPestry and are especially nice when you are coming in over a dial-up modem, then check out http://www.tappedin.org/info/software and download a free text client. Email us if you have questions about them.
Advanced Tech Tip of the Month: Sharing Objects With a Team
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When you first create an object (like a note) in TAPPED IN, you are the only one who "owns" it. This means you are the only one who can name it and make changes to it. However, objects can be owned by more than one person by creating "additional owners". Anyone made an additional owner of an object can also make certain changes to the object, like change its name, description, or contents. This is useful, for example, when a trusted team of people want to all be able to edit an object (like a note) without needing to submit their edits through the main owner.
The creator of an object (the "main owner") can use the following commands to add or remove additional owners. Typing: /add-owner <user> to <object> adds <user> as an additional owner to <object>. Typing: /remove-owner <user> from <object> removes <user> from the additional owners of <object>. Ask a HelpDesk member if you have questions!
[8] About ...On the TAPIS
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Postings of all ...ON THE TAPIS issues are available on the TAPPED IN website 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.