Subscribing to Professional Discussion Groups & Listservs

You will be writing reactions to postings on listservs or other discussion groups, which means you need to be subscribed to this listserv, and you need to read the incoming messages regularly.   However, you do not need to respond to the listserv 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.

Directions for subscribing to the Webheads online community
Directions for subscribing to an Electronic Village Online session
 Directions for subscribing toTESL-L, TESLCA-L and/or TESP-L
Set TESL-L to nomail
Creating a personal mail folder
Directions for unsubscribing from TESLCA-L, TESP-L and TESL-L
(optional: Directions for posting to TESLCA-L)

A.  Subscriptions to Professional Organizations: Webheads, EVO, TESL-L and TESLCA-L, and TESP-L

1.  Directions for subscribing to the Webheads online community

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.

2.  Directions for subscribing to an Electronic Village Online session (6 weeks, January-February only)

Click on EVO CALL for Participation 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.
If you choose this option, please email me.  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.  Directions for subscribing to TESL-L, TESLCA-L, or TESP-L: 

Please note: TESLCA-L has been relatively inactive in the last two years, so Options 1 and 2 are preferred.
TESLCA-L is a branch of TESL-L, a large, world-wide discussion list of professional teachers that focuses on general English.  For the CALL course, only the branches TESLCA-L and possibly TESP-L (English for Special Purposes) are of interest--see the description of the branches at <http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/~tesl-l/branch.html>.   In order to be subscribed to the sublists or branches, you will also need to be subscribed to the main list (TESL-L).  In order to be subscribed to the sublists or branches, you will also need to be subscribed to the main list (TESL-L).  Please note that a subscription to TESL-L does NOT satisfy the subscription requirement for this course.

Click on the link http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/~tesl-l/.  Follow the directions for 

                   How to Join (http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/~tesl-l/tojoin.html).  Register at <http://listserv.cuny.edu/Scripts/wa.exe>.

To post messages to the listserv, please follow the directions in How to Post (<http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/~tesl-l/topost.html>).

          OR Click on this link: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU.   An e-mail message window will open up with the link address in the to line.
                   In the CC line, type cbauer-ramazani@smcvt.edu.
                   Leave the subject line blank.
                   In the main message window, type 

sub TESL-L firstname lastname
sub TESLCA-L firstname lastname 
sub TESP-L firstname lastname 

EXAMPLE:
sub TESLCA-L Christine Bauer-Ramazani

4.  Directions for unsubscribing from TESLCA-L, TESP-L and/or TESL-L:

See the Listserv Commands link (<http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/~tesl-l/commands.html>) for directions on how to unsubscribe, stop mail temporarily, etc.).

OR

Open a new message window or click on this link: listserv@listserv.cuny.edu.
Leave the subject   line blank.
In the main message window, type

                     unsub TESLCA-L
                     unsub TESP-L
                     unsub TESL-L

5.  Set TESL-L to nomail (Recommended if you are not interested in messages related to general English).  This command will leave you subscribed to TESL-L, but you won't be receiving any messages from this list.  

           Open a new message window or click on this link:  listserv@listserv.cuny.edu
            Again, in the CC  line, type cbauer-ramazani@smcvt.edu.  
            Leave the subject  line blank.
            In the main message window, type

                            set TESL-L nomail

SEE  a list of other Professional Listservs at Electronic Discussion & Newsgroups.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  To confirm your subscriptions, please send an e-mail message to me by clicking on instructor or use the cc line as instructed above.

6.  Creating a personal mail folder (Recommended)

Create a personal mail folder to store your mail from the discussion lists and to save the subscription information you will be receiving.   Please see Creating a Personal Folder file for creating personal mail folders that prevent your mailbox from getting overloaded or exceeding your allocated mail quota. 

If your subscription was entered correctly, you will receive an "Output" message and a "Welcome" message within a few minutes.    This message contains very important information about TESL-L, its history, its function, and the rules of etiquette to observe when interacting with the list.  Please save it in a separate Personal Folder called "Subscriptions".

7.  Directions for posting to TESLCA-L 

To post messages to TESLCA-L, i.e. to share a message with the other members of the listserv, open a new message window or click on TESLCA-L@listserv.cuny.edu.   This will open an e-mail message window with the link address in the to line.

Now return to the Syllabus page to complete your required subscriptions or to Week 1 to complete your assignments..

This page was last revised on: Monday, May 09, 2011

© Christine Bauer-Ramazani
All rights reserved. 
Please send me questions or feedback by clicking on my name.