Hi Fellow Electonic Onliners...I am actually a teacher who DOES take part
in online forums. For about 6 years I have been an avid participant in an
online conference made up of my colleagues spread out between 9 schools in
my system. (Brookline Public Schools). We use First Class and I actually
have about 10 conferences that I am part of. I only use SOME of them for
discussion that is beyond chat. For me life on screen is quite varied
because of the variety of conferences available to me. My voice usually is
different, depending on who I am talking with...sometimes it's just chat
and some joking, or it's about logistical and management stuff. However, I
have some serious conferences that are very important to my survival as a
teacher. In these conferences I'm figuring out problems, seeking advice,
and designing curriculum. The conference in which I am most engaged for
serious talk is with my grade-level and subject-area colleagues. (Computer
Specialsits). We have been together, online for many years but we also see
each other F2F atleast once a month. Ususally our F2F agenda sets the
discussion topics that come up online for the next few weeks. I feel
fortunate that I've been part of such an online experience and now as I am
on-leave from my school system and working at BBN, one of the things I am
concentrating on is helping to design these kinds of online environments
for other teachers. I really think these conferences have to be part of a
much larger picture for teachers- having to do with professional
development but not the whole answer to their PD program. Also, as we
advocate for these online environments keep in mind that collaboration, in
general needs to be part of the teacher-school culture. I know a lot of
teachers in other school districts who do not live in a culture for
collaboration like I've been so use to. I haven't talked very much in this
forum because I simply haven't had the time and now that I am more
peripheral to my school system colleagues I participate much less in their
conference--but I do lurk because the discussion is so good and I want to
stay informed about the issues they are grappling with...Ann K.
______________________________________
Ann Koufman-Frederick, Education Specialist
GTE Internetworking
BBN Learning Systems and Technologies
70 Fawcett Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Email: akoufman@bbn.com
Voice: 617-873-2088
FAX: 617-873-2455
web site: http://learning.bbn.com/
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