Date: Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern / 12am GMT (next day) (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tinyurl.com/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event.
Event Page: http://www.futureofeducation.com/forum/topics/sri-on-tapped-in-educational
Judi Fusco and Patti Schank from the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) join us to talk about the Tapped In network, educational social networking, and the future of electronic communities in education:
1. What is the difference between community and social networking?
2. What does community brings to the learning process (e.g., Communities of Practice and how that guided their work in Tapped In)? What are examples of successes and what have different organizations/small groups have achieved?
3. Ho do we create community in online situations?
4. How do we understand what the community gives to the participants?
Dr. Judith Fusco is a research scientist in SRI International's Center for Technology in Learning, and specializes in researching and developing online communities, technologies, and resources. Since 1998, she has directed the community development of TAPPED IN, an online community for teacher professional development. While developing the community, she has worked with master teachers from all over the world; and organizations like, NCREL, PBS, Pepperdine University, and Los Angeles County Office of Education. She has helped grow Tapped In from 300 teachers to over 20,000 and has helped many organizations learn to work online.Dr. Fusco's research on the community involves examining social and technical supports necessary for online community, individual and group readiness, investigating models for online professional development, understanding the nature of local K-12 education communities of practice, generally analyzing and applying social network analysis (SNA) techniques to quantitative data gathered in the community. In addition, she is part of the OERL (Online Evaluation Research Library) team. She is co-leading the evaluation of the OERL web site and working with professors to investigate how OERL might be used in graduate level evaluation courses.
Before coming to SRI International, she worked at Apple Computer, Inc. leading the community development of Convomania, on an online community for kids who are sick or have a disability. The community of Convomania ended in January of 1998, so Dr. Fusco, Teresa Middleton (CTL alum) and others formed the online community PatchWorx, a 501c3 non-profit organization for kids who are sick or have a disability.
For more, see http://ctl.sri.com/people/displayPerson.jsp?Nick=jfusco
Patricia Schank is a cognitive and computer scientist at SRI's Center for Technology in Learning. Her current research interests are human computer interaction (HCI), social computing, computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL), and computer supported cooperative work (CSCW). Working with teams of developers and researchers, she applies a range of design and engineering processes (interface design, prototyping, user testing, architecture specification, and implementation) and research methodologies to develop and analyze innovative socio-technical environments. Dr. Schank has a Ph.D. in education (emphasis in cognition and learning) and an M.S. in computer science (emphasis in artificial intelligence) from the University of California at Berkeley, where her dissertation work focused on modeling and aiding scientific reasoning through an integration of theory-based cognitive simulations, experimental studies, and instructional curricula.For more, see http://ctl.sri.com/people/displayPerson.jsp?Nick=schank
Esther Wojcicki has been a Journalism/English teacher at Palo Alto High School in Palo Alto, California for the past 25 years where she built the journalism program from a small group of 20 students in 1985 to the largest high school journalism program in the nation winning major national and international recognition. Her program is an example of the effectiveness of Project Based Learning and using journalism as a tool to get students engaged in critical thinking skills, writing skills, and Web 2.0 skills. She is working to help other schools adopt similar programs. The program includes 400 students, four journalism teachers, and five award-winning journalism electives including a newspaper (The Campanile) , a news magazine, (Verde), an online site (
Howard Rheingold is the author of:
Jeff Applegate is the Learning Games Network's Outreach Coordinator. Jeff comes from an eclectic background, with dual degrees in Government and Theatre from Cornell University, and experience as an actor, database developer, writer, editor, and teacher. He comes from a family of educators, and has woven the thread through much of his other work experience. The Learning Games Network has proven to be an exciting focus for integrating a number of those passions and interests toward the end of enhancing kids' ability and desire to learn.
Alex Chisholm (Executive Producer, ISLE Platform) is a media research and development consultant who creates transmedia entertainment and educational properties. in recent years, he has developed and managed several projects with NBC Universal, including iCue with NBC News, and the online games for NBC Olympics. He serves as the Software and Video Gaming Judge for the National Parenting Publication Awards (NAPPA). Over the past 10 years, Chisholm has collaborated on research, product, and program development with Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Sony Pictures Imageworks, LeapFrog, NBC Universal, Children's Hospital Boston, and the Hewlett and MacArthur Foundations. He holds a B.S. from Cornell University. Chisholm is the Executive Director and a founding member of the Learning Games Network.
Scot Osterweil (Principal Investigator and Creative Director) directs and leads the design on a number of MIT Education Arcade projects, including Labyrinth, Caduceus, and iCue. Before coming to MIT, Scot was the Senior Designer at TERC, where he designed Zoombinis Island Odyssey, winner of the 2003 Bologna New Media Prize, and the latest game in the Zoombinis line of products (Riverdeep/TLC). Scot is the creator of the Zoombinis, and with Chris Hancock he co-designed the multi-award winning Logical Journey of the Zoombinis, and its first sequel, Zoombinis Mountain Rescue. Scot is the also the designer of the TERCworks games Switchback, and Yoiks!, the latter also with Chris Hancock. Other software design work includes InspireData (Inspiration Software) and its predecessors Tabletop, and Tabletop Jr. Previously, Scot worked in television production and theater. He is a graduate of Yale College. Osterweil is the treasurer and a founding member of the Learning Games Network.
Dennis Littky is the co-founder and co-director of Big Picture Learning and the Met Center in Providence. He is nationally known for his extensive work in secondary education in urban, suburban, and rural settings, spanning over 40 years. As an educator, Dennis has a reputation for working up against the edge of convention and out of the box, turning tradition on its head and delivering concrete results. Presently, Dennis’s focus is to expand the Big Picture Learning design to include college-level accreditation through College Unbound, where students will have the opportunity to earn a B.A. and advanced certifications through a critically challenging, real-world based, and entrepreneurial course of study.