Tapped In

No teacher is an island--at least, you shouldn't be in this age of nings, listserves, wiki, etc. TappedIn is a real standout among professional learning communities. It's a free service with a helpful staff that can guide you around the different areas of the community. There are groups for librarians, world language teachers, art teachers, those interested in project-based learning, primary grades, middle school--you get the picture. As soon as I registered, I received a chat message from the information desk in the "lobby," with helpful suggestions. The "Enhanced Lessons" group has a wiki with a dozen tutorials for web 2.0 tools, like Delicious, VoiceThread and BubbleShare. In my wanderings among the groups, I found 17 links that I will use later in my classroom, adding them to my Delicious page. To imagine the possibilities of this community, read this amazing letter from a teacher in Illinois and one in Brazil who have brought their students together online for discussions. Here's a short tutorial created by one of the "Enhanced Lessons" group, or check this one from YouTube.