Subscribing to Professional Communities of Practice (CoP)

Assignment: Subscribe to TWO professional communities of practice--

1. Webheads;
2. one subscription of your choice.

You will be writing reactions to postings on communities of practice, which means you need to be subscribed to this community, and you need to read the incoming messages regularly. However, you do not need to respond to the messages directly, unless you wish to do so.  We will be "lurking" behind the scenes and sharing our reactions only among the course participants.  Below are the steps you need to follow.

Course participants teaching in a K-12 environment should also check out Subscriptions for K-12 Teachers.

1.  Directions for subscribing to the Webheads online community (required)

Webheads is where the latest technology tips are published within the ESL/EFL/general education community.  It grew out of an online session in 2002 held as part of the Electronic Village Online, which I co-founded and led from 2000-2004, and am still involved in.  The session was run by Vance Stevens, founding member of the CALL Interest Section of TESOL.  It is by far the most active, productive, and supportive discussion group that I have belonged to, with new ideas, good downloads, questions, suggestions, and answers being posted daily.  Most of its members are teachers in many different areas in the world that use technology in the classroom on a daily basis.  I strongly recommend subscribing to this community to learn more about CALL and technology in the classroom in general.  Since this group generates anywhere from 10-20 messages per day, some social, some technology-related, it is strongly recommended that you edit your membership options to set yourself to receive a daily DIGEST only; you will receive one email per day, with all posts to the group collected therein.

To join, you must become a Yahoo! member first.  This is free and we will use more of Yahoo's offerings, so please register now.

• Obtain a Yahoo!ID by going to https://edit.yahoo.com/registration and completing the registration form. (A Yahoo!ID is needed in order to access the documents and archives areas of the courses.  Without a Yahoo!ID you can participate in the email discussions only.) 

  • It is important that you fill in the registration form completely; otherwise, your registration will not go through. This includes the Word Verification. Yahoo uses this to make sure that you are a real person and not a hacker trying to get numerous email accounts.  Click the checked box to unselect the option to receive special offers, promotions and polls if you do not wish to receive them.  When finished, click "Submit This Form."
  • You should receive an email confirming your registration. Be sure to record your Yahoo! ID and password. You will need these to sign into Yahoo! Groups.  
  • Note: If you need help or have questions, click Yahoo! Sign-In and Registration Help at http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/edit/.
• Click on Webheads in Action; click JOIN. 

2. Directions for subscribing to an Electronic Village Online session--January-February (5 weeks): 

Mid-January only: One of the 5-week sessions offered by the Electronic Village Online --click <http://evosessions.pbworks.com/> and follow the directions to subscribe to one of the sessions. Several of them will be run through YahooGroups as a learning management system, others through Moodle or Wikis. If you decide to participate in a session, please let the instructor know, as it will replace one of your course assignments.  Click on Electronic Village Online and choose one of the sessions.  Click on the link to the session and follow the instructions to join. You will need a Yahoo!ID first--see the instructions in 1. above. 
You should post reactions each week and the project you will produce in this session will substitute a project in the CALL course.  Also, since these sessions generate anywhere from 10-20 messages per day, some social, some technology-related, it is strongly recommended that you edit your membership options to set yourself to receive a daily DIGEST only; you will receive one email per day, with all posts to the group collected therein.

3.  Other free subscriptions

1. subscriptions for K-12 teachers: Click http://academics.smcvt.edu/cbauer-ramazani/gsl520_online/eCollege_files/subscriptions_K12.htm.  Send a confirmation to the instructor.

2. techLEARNING: The Resource for Education Technology Leaders-- includes Technology & Learning Magazine and free Webinars.  Send a confirmation to the instructor.

3. T.H.E. Journal -- To subscribe to the free paper or electronic version, complete the complimentary subscription.  Send a confirmation to the instructor.

4. LearningwithComputers -- a Yahoo!Group started in 2006 where you will find the latest Internet tools and technologies posted by a very active member group; get a YahooID first, then go to <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learningwithcomputers/> and click Join this group.  Send a confirmation to the instructor.

Now go to the Syllabus--Interaction & Projects.