Week One: Getting acquainted

ASSIGNMENTS: WEEK ONE The purpose this week is triple: Get to know each other, get to know the Yahoo site, and take a quick look at what is available on the WWW. (1) Visit our alternate site: http://www.oocities.org/jamuvm and take a look at the Members List. I will be updating it constantly as we get more information from members. Choose at least one person who sounds interesting—either because they work in a situation like yours, live in your area or live in a place you've always wanted to visit. Write them a personal E-mail…introducing yourself. Just click on their email addresses. If someone writes you…write back. This way we will start getting to know each other. (2) Read this article: What’s on the Web? Sorting Strands of the World Wide Web for Educators by Tom March . The article was updated last October, but some of the links (typically) don’t work…the more you work with the Web, the more you get use to this. Anyway, 90% of them are fine. Read through the article and visit some of the sites (there are a lot, so unless you have a lot of free time, choose the ones you find interesting). When you are done, think about these questions and post them to MESSAGES (I've given up on your posting to FILES…too many Mac users.) a. Do you agree with all the ideas presented in the article? What part do you find to be most interesting? b. What sites did you visit? What did you think about them? Do you think you could adapt them to use in your classes? What kinds of adaptation would you need to do? Feel free to comment on each others’ answers…visit the sites your classmates found interesting, etc. These on-line courses work better when everyone participates, reading the assignments, posting their opinions AND commenting on each others' answers… (3) Besides the FILES link, Yahoo has also given us some other links on the left-hand side of the page. Visit PHOTOS. I've put one up of me and my husband (without his permission, of course). Feel free to post a photo of your own—you, your school, your students, your dog…whatever. It will be nice to meet each other visually. Only .JPG and .GIF photos can be added. Check back occasionally to see who is present. (4) The BOOKMARK link is also useful. Here we can add our favorite sites so everyone can visit them. If you have your own web page or a favorite page, add it here so everyone can visit. I just added my site... (5) And finally, you can visit the MEMBERS link. Here are all the people who have joined the course. You can write them directly by clicking on their addresses. (6) The CALENDAR function will let you know where the course is going. We can be flexible about the calendar…the course isn't written in stone…just in WORD. Let me (miller@efltasks.net) know if you'd like to do something else or adapt the calendar in any way. (7) Take your time doing these assignments. I know everyone has professional obligations and there are time you might get behind. Don't worry…just take your time. Write me personally if you encounter any technical problems (miller@efltasks.net) . Have a nice week! The next assignment will go up before February 1st.