CHAT LOG FOR CHANNEL 1, 3/18/99

¥¥¥ Mellie has joined. ¥¥¥

Sharon: Hi Melie

Laura: Hi Mellie. Welcome.

Mellie: Hi Sharon and Laura. It's great to be here again.

Sharon: It's great to see you too.

Laura: We're still at the virtual pizza and pop stage right now :-)

Mellie: Great. I'll email this to Susan (if she doesn't join us later) and we'll both check it out tomorrow. Hmm, Pizza and pop stage. We're just finishing dinner here too.

Laura: Susan mentioned she'd be around - probably finishing dinner too ...

Laura: Do you want to introduce yourself in the COW CHAINLInC conference while we are waiting?

Mellie: Sure. How do I do that?

Laura: Can you put your chat window on one side of the screen and browser on the other?

Laura: say yes when you are there ....

Mellie: Yes. I havn't pulled up Netscape yet. Give me a minute.

Laura: sure!

Mellie: Okay, Browser's Up. Do I stilluse the www.fnal.gov/tools/cow?

Laura: yup! good memory

Laura: ready for next step?

Mellie: Yes

Laura: use the HOTLIST EDITOR button

Laura: bottom right

Laura: then, put an X in the CHAINLInC box

Mellie: ok. I'm there now where do I go?

Laura: then click on the WRITE NEW HOTLIST button

Mellie: I did that and it said my HotList had been save. Now where?

Laura: say ok when ready ....

Laura: click on Back to Your Hotlist

Thu Mar 18 19:13:52 1999

Laura: then click on CHAINLInC

Mellie: Right. I'm there and see the Intorductions etc. Do you want me to post here?

Laura: yup.

Laura: bring back memories?

Mellie: Yup. Many very pleasant memories. Susan and I are taking a course at Hopkins right now, and we're just about dying. The course you taught was so much better, so much more practical, and so much more relaxing. I've posted (I hope) my introduction.

Laura: hmmm sorry to hear the class isn't as good as you hoped.

Laura: what's it about?

Thu Mar 18 19:30:07 1999

Laura: Your introduction looks good.

Sharon: Mellie, I just read your comment about the course at Hopkins. You just made my day!

Laura: What's your online class about?

Mellie: The class is a planetary science course taught by a scientists from NASA Goddard. She really knows her stuff which is great, but I think she forgets that we're all full time teachers. The work load is unbearable and some of it unreasonable. That's what

Laura: wow - everyone always tells us the work load for LInC is heavy - glad to hear we'r not off the edge of the scale.

Laura: Are there any tools or strategies they are using in the planetary science online course, that we should know about?

Mellie: Oh - it's not an online class. We travel one hour each way (going up is in rush hour traffic) and just get to class in time for the weekly "quiz." The workload for LInC isn't heavy. I hope Susan joins us, but I can't think of any tools you can use; Hop

Laura: oh, ok.

Laura: Did you get a chance to try your CHESSIE project out?

Mellie: We were afraid you were going to ask that. No, neither of us have been able to implement CheSSie. Susan because of things at her school and me because of my new assignments this year. I'm hoping to try some of it this next quarter with my reading class

Laura: no problem. beauracratic things happen to everyone.

Sharon: The instructor could be a great resource for your students to use. For our project, we were able to use astronomers at Adler and Japan. They chatted with my students and the students loved it. Japan sent live images of Mars and Saturn

Sharon: and some constellations.

Sharon: We did a videoconference again last Friday with this year's students.

Laura: Mellie, did you anything in particular you wondering about LInC or projects etc.

Laura: We reorganized all the LInC pages to make them a lot easier to use.

Mellie: That's a great idea. I think the class may get better, not any easier, but better now that the new programs have been sent to the Oribiter. Our instructor, Dr. Susan, was one of the key players in that part of the mission. Laura, how do you envision

Laura: and we also have lots of new Shockwave animations for FTP and PageMill.

Laura: cool. nice to get it from the horse's mouth

Laura: We have a nice new rubric as well.

Laura: and a huge list of projects all together from past courses.

Thu Mar 18 19:46:22 1999

Mellie: Looks like I'll have some perusing to do.

Laura: I can give URLs - which one would you like?

Mellie: Can you email me the urls for projects from past courses and the new rubric?

Laura: sure, we can take a look at it during the chat.

Mellie: That will be great!

Laura: They are both at /trc/projects/project_index.html

Laura: rubric is a link in that page.

Mellie: Got it!

Laura: there are probably over 100 projects there ...

Laura: not all perfect, but they all have interesting aspects.

Mellie: I've got it on my browser now.

Mellie: Just a real quick read through of the rubric - it looks OUTSTANDING! I'll read it more thoroughly tomorrow, but it looks like a high quality piece of work. Are you, or have you published this somewhere? Have you written an article and submitted this to

Laura: well - the 6 instructors worked on it, plus the external evaluator, plus the participants made suggestions for changes too.

Laura: so I'm pretty happy with it after all that input.

Laura: I think it really captures engaged learning and best use of tech.

Laura: and it helps people focus their projects when we're trying to facilitate their creating one

Laura: thanks. We have not published anything yet.

Laura: I want to, but I can't seem to get the time while a class is going on.

Laura: I'm always 100% on the class

Laura: but that is an excellent suggestion, Mellie - we will follow up on this

Sharon: I like that we change the course each time we offer it to make it better than before.

Mellie: You're absolutely correct. I'm serious, you need to write it up and get it published. It not only helps teachers focus on their projects, but it also helps teachers analyze web lessons, sites, etc. When is class over; you probably just started the spri

Thu Mar 18 20:01:27 1999

Laura: Thanks for teh encouragement. Sometimes it takes a little push :-)

Sharon: Mellie, we are planning on doing a chat on problem based learning next. There were many people who wanted this topic. I know that you were one.

Mellie: Problem base learning is good. Will the chat be on Monday or Thursday?

Sharon: Right now it is planned for Monday. But I am flexible.

Sharon: Glad you could make it tonight. We had 15 people say they were going to be here too. I wonder if they had problems with the chat tool or mixed up the time.

Mellie: OK. I'll try to be there. Chuck, my better half, just came down to remind me "it's that time" - time to walk our buddies. Must go; will see you Monday.

Sharon: Take care and see you next time.

Laura: ok. Great to "see" you. Have a good night!

Mellie: Thanks. Bye.

Sharon: Bye.

¥¥¥ Mellie has left. ¥¥¥

¥¥¥ Sharon has left. ¥¥¥

Thu Mar 18 20:29:51 1999