Consultancy Section
Personal Information
I live in Forest Grove Oregon,
which is about 25 miles west of Portland. I am a single dad raising three great kids (Liam, Nora and Owen ). I am a professional educator with over 15 years experience, over a dozen years online. I have taught English, ESL and Computer Applications. I was also the computer resource teacher for my old middle school, Portola Jr. High. For three years I was the Education Technology Specialist for the College of Education at Pacific University.
I majored in Rhetoric at Cal Berkeley, and received my Professional Clear English Teaching Credential from San Francisco State University in 1991. In 1994 I taught English at Richmond High School in California, teaching 150 inner city students, many of whom were ESL, most of whom read way below grade level. In my classroom I had one 386 computer with a shell connection to the Internet; with that one computer, I managed to have my students internationally published. My NWREL article "Building 21st Century Collaborative Learning Communities" covers many pragmatic free and inexpensive tools for educators, centering on my own approach to education:
Facilitation-- Validation-- Motivation-- Collaboration
These factors don't receive the attention they deserve in today's classroom. Facing enormous pressures to raise test scores and align to NCLB standards, educators often toss out the virtual window important pedagogy such as constructivism, student-centered learning, and project based learning. There are ways to use the Internet, freeware and "cheapware" to attain standards while still keeping students actively engaged with their own education. The first stop on the road to professional development, collaboration, and a student-centered approach is Tapped In.
Tapped In
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Tapped In is a professional educator's collaborative with over 17,000 members and 700+ professional development groups, university and K-12 classes. I have volunteered on Helpdesk since it began in 1997 and supported thousands of educators and students in learning the interface and finding relevant groups to collaborate with and online resources.
I have presented workshops on Tapped In for local and regional school districts, the NCCE 2003 Conference, and the NECC 2006 Conference. I have written several articles on educational uses of virtual communities.
Open Tap is the open source system that underlies Tapped In and may be freely downloaded at sourceforge.net. Programming support is available through SRI.
Consultancy
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If you are interested in setting up your own virtual university, school district or business, and would like top flight end-user support for this endeavour, please don't hesitate to contact me.
My rates are very reasonable and in a short period of time you will learn in a "three hour tour":
Hour 1: Overview of Tapped In and Introduction to the Interface
• About Tapped In
• Registration and introductory tour for those not registered.
• Creation of a personal office, using the interface, viewing the professional development calendar, joining groups, and a quick tour of the K-12 campus (time permitting)
• Creating passageways between offices and groups
• Personal profile development
• Image note creation
• Website projection on remote computers
Hour 2: Intermediate/Advanced Use of Tapped In:
Group and K-12 classroom Creation and Management
• Participants will create their own group and/or K-12 classroom.
• HTML and RSS within threaded discussions
• Participants will learn to manage their K-12 class, set up student accounts, set permission levels, collaborate with other K-12 classes (optional).
Hour 3: Open Tap and the Future of Tapped In
• Participants will learn how to create their own version of Tapped In on their own servers.
• Some participants will continue with hour two work.
All participants will receive supporting Helpdesk documentation created by Jeff Cooper (over 25 Helpdesk tips) and continued sustained online support (through tappedinsupport@yahoogroups, email, polysynchronous sessions at Tapped In, phone, Skype and whatever other form of support the end-user desires), based upon individual and group needs.
Additional support for your own Open Tap project includes virtual classroom and office management, building management, account creation and site administration.
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Free Conference Calls For Educators
Contact:Bricelda Beltran
1.800.989.9239
Contact Me
Email Jeff Cooper
503-357-3577
Tapped In: JeffC
Yahoo Instant Messenger: jbcoops