[thedump] Notes of RET/THEDUMP Meeting, Oct. 25

[Felicia Berryman]

Meeting of RET and THEDUMP Participants:
	LITE Lab, Saturday October 25, 9:00-11:30 am
Attending:
	Rob Mock, Beaverton Rural Schools
	George Macklem, Fowlerville High School
	Michael Sampson, Redford Schools
	David McCreight, Lansing School District, (Eastern HS)
	John Plough, East Lansing Public Schools
Also:  Felicia Berryman and Ed Kashy, MSU

Each teacher gave a brief overview of the use of LON-CAPA. It is working 
well. Each teacher will prepare 2 to 3 slides describing that use, 
student participation and attitudes, good and bad things encountered, 
etc.. The teachers should also contribute ideas about content sharing 
and their experiences with THEDUMP.  These slides will be included in a 
presentation of THEDUMP resource creation, selection and sharing at the 
Washington DC workshop January by one or more of the participating 
teachers who are able to attend. John Plough said that he will try to 
make it. Rob Mock submitted a proposal to speak at the next Michigan 
Association of Computer Users in Learning (MACUL) conference.

Some schools (ELHS, LSD, and FVL) used local servers while others (BRS 
and Redford) were  hosted by MSU. The latter scheme appears to work 
well, especially for small districts where technical support is 
difficult to obtain and where firewall issues complicates getting 
started. Student feedback is mostly positive, a small fraction ~1/15 not 
participating for various reasons, including not worth enough towards 
grade. Printing is an appreciated feature, done by students. It also 
seems that students who print have less complaints about computer 
access. Due to frivolous printing done by many students this option is 
not always encouraged. Access does not appear to be a problem because 
majority of students have home access and classroom and school library 
access is available. One of the features appreciated by Michael Sampson 
of Redford was essay questions and the grading features such as 
high-lighting of keywords and finding similar essays.

Some of the new features were demonstrated by Felicia. These features 
included setting course parameters with the helper, setting a 
folder/sequence to exam type, and specifying collaborators with essay 
questions. The new help request system at http://help.lon-capa.org was 
also mentioned.

The issues in deciding to add/drop content references in THEDUMP 
sequences were discussed briefly and will have to be revisited as the 
sequences grow in size. To keep THEDUMP up-to-date, active, and 
organized the suggestion of ending each RET session with a 2 day session 
for previous and new RET teachers to work specifically on THEDUMP was 
discussed.  Interactions with similar "dumps" in other states (Ohio, 
Florida) were also mentioned.

Rob Mock and Michael Sampson had questions about how to add interested 
teachers from their schools to LON-CAPA.  Felicia can give any 
interested teacher an account, construction space, and class.  Michael 
Sampson said a business teacher may be interested and it was suggested 
that if this new teacher comes on board to contact Pam Blamer at Mio.

A training session connected with the Michigan American Association of 
Physics Teachers (MAAPT) will be Jan 19, 2004. Interested teachers will 
come with a list of their students to set up one or more classes, using 
the MSU hosting environment. Emphasis will be on learning to run a class 
and to use existing resources and THEDUMP site, with little or no 
authoring at the session. An announcement to the Jan 19 session will be 
sent out later.

Finally, Michael Sampson brought in a graphic for a T-shirt dedicated 
for THEDUMP members.  Michael can email the list at 
thedump@mail.lon-capa.org for color ideas.
-- 
Felicia Berryman
LON-CAPA Coordinator
Michigan State University
   Email:  felicia@lon-capa.org
   Phone:  (517)432-9866
http://www.lon-capa.org