Tapped In - Professional Development
I am a fairly new teacher and because of that I have had very limited experience with professional development. I have an understanding of what certain states, schools, districts require for continuing education of their teachers but have not had the opportunity of working towards any of these requirements. So when I was researching and looking through Tapped In, it was a very new and in a way "awkward" experience. I have to agree with Ellen that to some level I felt very exposed while I was searching. I turned off the feature where people can see my e-mail address but I still felt that it was very easy to get personal information. Also I felt that it was difficult to navigate around if you did not know exactly what you were looking for and that many of the "rooms" that had been there for at least over a year, had nothing in them. There were members of the "Spanish Teachers" room but nothing on the page. I know there were 14 members but no discussion or links or pathways. Simply names of people with their e-mail addresses. I found it difficult to find any information on what I was looking for in the short amount of time that I spent on the site. Maybe I just need some more time to play around with the site.With that being said there were also many good things about Tapped In. It is a really wide forum that has many interesting aspects with interesting people involved. Also, if you did know of a office to go to (like Dan's) then you got a good amount of information to learn from and respond to. It definitely points out good resources for professional development in Dan's field of ESL. I guess I will just have to keep looking for my other fellow Spanish teachers on Tapped In. Overall, it was a good introduction into this type of forum/space for professional development. I am learning something brand new with technology every week and I am realizing how much I have no idea about and how much I need to and can learn. I hope I can keep up:)
posted by Christine Parker @ 11:22 PM
1 Comments:
I'd say that you're only as exposed as you choose to make yourself. As with all sites that require information, you don't really have to put your real info in. Maybe you could do that when you feel more comfortable. You could be a 35 year old man from Austin Texas if you want. There's nothing to say that you can't take on a completely different identity. That's a little scary in its own right.
Yes, it is hard to find active spaces in TappedIn. The best way is to (1) find group spaces. They are more likely to be active. (2) Go to the calendar. The more active groups schedule events in there.
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