I chose TheApple.com because I have been a member for almost a year now, and although I receive emails from them often, I still have not explored it enough to know what it is all about. I believe I got invited to it from google-ing teaching jobs and graduate schools, I'm not sure, but somewhere along the way I was invited and joined The Apple. At first I thought it was kind of like facebook for teachers, but now that I have explored it I have found that it is so much more!
What are the characteristics, capabilities and limitations of this tool?
The characteristics are similar to facebook in that you create a profile, picture, join groups, post pictures and can "friend" other teachers. But, instead of just looking up other peoples' profiles and being updating on their every move, this site also has tons of articles on everything related to teaching-from becoming a teacher, to burning issues and much more. One can rate these articles as well and browse them based on subject or rating. There are also videos related to teaching; everything from "a DNA song" to funny phone calls teacher receive. There is a tab for jobs, lesson plans, resources, photos and discussion groups (asynchronous).
The capabilities of this tool (in my opinion) are endless. One could spend hours on this site and not see it all. There is so much to read and explore it eats up your time (much like facebook) and you'll get lost at times-reading an article, the comments on it, then looking into a teacher that made a comment, what school they teach at, look up the school rating, see the jobs they offer, etc. This is also a site that is national, not just for California teachers, so you can see that teachers across the country encounter the same challenges as you.
Limitations to this tool might just be how vast it is, like I said you can easily get lost because there is so much to read and see that it is overwhelming at times. Just as there are asynchronous conversations occuring, one can start a synchronous discussion as well, and send whoever they'd like to invite messages through apple. And apple will email you informing you of the mesage received. The only limitation I currently see in regards to our asynchronous discussion was that I wasn't able to make it private, which Carmen and I decided isn't a big deal because it would be fun to have others partake in our conversation, but it didn't give us the option. Also, what I liked about Tapped In was that it informed us whenever a comment was made in the group through our email, so we knew exactly when to go and respond, whereas with apple you do not get that email so you have to check it periodically. However, the purpose of this site is to share and respond to information on a consistent basis, so if you were made aware every time a comment was made in all the discussion groups you've communicated on, it would result in a lot of emails, then again, if we were to make our group private and wanted to be made aware every time someone commented, that would have been helpful.
The capabilities of this tool (in my opinion) are endless. One could spend hours on this site and not see it all. There is so much to read and explore it eats up your time (much like facebook) and you'll get lost at times-reading an article, the comments on it, then looking into a teacher that made a comment, what school they teach at, look up the school rating, see the jobs they offer, etc. This is also a site that is national, not just for California teachers, so you can see that teachers across the country encounter the same challenges as you.
Limitations to this tool might just be how vast it is, like I said you can easily get lost because there is so much to read and see that it is overwhelming at times. Just as there are asynchronous conversations occuring, one can start a synchronous discussion as well, and send whoever they'd like to invite messages through apple. And apple will email you informing you of the mesage received. The only limitation I currently see in regards to our asynchronous discussion was that I wasn't able to make it private, which Carmen and I decided isn't a big deal because it would be fun to have others partake in our conversation, but it didn't give us the option. Also, what I liked about Tapped In was that it informed us whenever a comment was made in the group through our email, so we knew exactly when to go and respond, whereas with apple you do not get that email so you have to check it periodically. However, the purpose of this site is to share and respond to information on a consistent basis, so if you were made aware every time a comment was made in all the discussion groups you've communicated on, it would result in a lot of emails, then again, if we were to make our group private and wanted to be made aware every time someone commented, that would have been helpful.
What are the requirements for using this tool?
There are no requirements because you can join The Apple even if you are only interested in teaching and want to learn more about the career and talk to other teachers. If one was not interested in teaching, there would be no incentive to join.
How could you use it to support an online course? Provide an example.
Just as we are doing now with Carmen and my guided discussion, you can set up a group in the forum to hold an asynchronous discussion. One can also set up a synchronous discussion by inviting members via messaging on apple, tell them a date and time, and they can connect on chatroll.com, which is another free online tool that lets people create their own live chat groups, The Apple has one under this website.
Provide directions on how to access and use this tool
Log onto www.TheApple.com, simply click register and fill out the profile, post a picture and you have joined The Apple! I highly recommend this tool, it is very informative and has A LOT to offer!
I have also found this amazing video through The Apple, here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxsOVK4syxU If that does not work youtube Taylor Mali and select the video "What do Teachers really make?"
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