As educators we have often seen the power of information technology to transform learning when used well.
The internet provides us not only information, but also access of a form which has never been possible before in the classroom. Access to people, their ideas, other classrooms and wider audiences for student work.
There are many exciting things being done by educators all over the world. However, in many cases, individual teachers are working on similar projects in parallel, without any idea that someone else has encountered the same challenges.
The interactivities forum is an attempt to draw together educators from a wide variety of backgrounds in order to share insights, solve problems, discuss new tools and initiatives and encourage eachother.
The Interactivities Forum provides educators with an opportunity to discuss and share resources related to student/teacher created web-based interactive multimedia projects.
That's a complicated set of words. Perhaps you'd like to enter the discussion by telling us what it means to you? A look at the FAQ might also help at this stage.
However, before you post, here's a few "ground rules" to help everything run smoothly:
Commercial Posts: Some people will have joined this list because they have a commercial interest in distance education and making educational resources available online. Your contribution is welcome. We all probably have a great deal to share.
However, if anyone is even thinking of posting unsolicited commercial email - particularly of the "please join my MLM get-rich-quick scam^H^Hheme", think again. This is not a good place to risk losing your internet access.
If you're in any doubt about whether a message would be welcome. Don't hesitate to contact David Hellam at david@hellam.net first.
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Introductions: It is useful if every contributor starts off with a short introduction:
Who you are, what sort of projects you've been working on? Where/what/who/whether you teach? What tools you use? What you want to achieve in the future?
There is also a profiles area where you may want to give more information about yourself. As with the introductions, there is no compulsion involved. But other contributors may find it useful. You might also want to read the forum's privacy policy too, if you have not done so already.
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Signatures: For those people whose email clients strip out email addresses from message headers, it may be useful to include a text signature.
Please keep your sigfile to about 4 lines in length, including dividers and white space. A couple of dashes "--" before your sigline is a useful marker for people who have set their mail clients to ignore sigfiles.
Please remember: A message that is shorter than its signature is for some people an even greater annoyance than a repost of a massive message with the words "I agree!" at the bottom...
A digest version of the forum is available. To subscribe to the digest, send a blank email to: forum-digest-request@interactivestuff.org with the word subscribe in the subject field.
Don't forget, if you're replying to a message
- Unsubscribing: If you regret joining this list and want to escape, don't email the list asking to unsubscribe, people will only assume that you've mislaid your brain somewhere.
Instead, send a blank email to forum-request@interactivestuff.org with the word unsubscribe in the subject field.
A reminder of subscription instructions and other useful information will be sent to the Forum around the middle of each month.
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Be nice to eachother: We all know that teachers have to pass a course in applied irony at a secret college in Transylvania. Keep the sarcasm for those students who appreciate it.
For those people who have never seen RFC 1855, the closest thing there is to an official document on netiquette, it might be worth reading it here
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Stay on topic: We're here to discuss how to use the web to create interactive educational resources for the classroom. There are plenty of other forums for discussing other topics.
NoMail settings:If you're going off on holiday, and you want to receive no mail. You will need to send a blank email to:
forum-request@interactivestuff.org with the word unsubscribe in the subject field. By doing so, you will earn the undying gratitude of those of us whose mailboxes don't get cluttered with "I'm away for the next 40 days, so you can expect to receive 56,328 messages like this in the next 3 days...". Don't forget to resubscribe when you return from vacation.
Have fun! If you want a few ideas for topics to discuss, here's some hints:
- Here's what I've been working on ...<url>... What do you
others think? Please be gentle!
- I'm having difficulty with ...<idea>... Here's what I've
been trying to do. Any suggestions?
- Has anyone done any interactivities on ...<topic>...?
- What do you use ...<tool>... to do with your students?
