Last week, we opened the ACTFL Community to anyone in the foreign language profession. In doing this we automatically subscribed everyone with a record with ACTFL to the discussion “language educators”. The idea was for this to be the starting place for everyone to begin interacting. This discussion is where ACTFL will generate profession-wide discussions. Ultimately, though, this is your community and you will decide how it grows and functions!
We also have many other smaller topic discussions groups that you may want to join, such as: French teachers, adjunct professors, students, higher ed instructors, K-12 administrators, and immersion to name just a few. You can see all of the discussion groups to choose from by clicking on the communities tab in the main menu. When you go to the communities section, you will see 3 different types of communities:
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Committees: These are ACTFL committees and membership in them is limited to the current committee members. The discussions and documents of these committees are private to the committee members. You will not be able to join or view these items unless you are a member of the committee.
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Member Created Groups: These are groups members of the community have created and for the most part are open to anyone to join. The administrator of a group can limit membership, so if you are working on a project with several people at different locations, you may create a group and communicate this way.
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Special Interest Groups: These are the ACTFL SIGs and membership in them is limited to those individuals that pay to belong to the SIG. Any ACTFL member may join a SIG for $5 per year. You can add a SIG by emailing membership@actfl.org.
You can limit what communities you see by clicking on the “community type” drop down box and choosing the type you wish to view. You can also search by using the “search for a committee” field at the top of the page. The committees in bold lettering are the ones you already belong to.
We expect that as the ACTFL Online Community becomes more popular, more topic-specific groups will become active. Until then, much of what is posted will be in the general “language educators” group. We are currently moderating all messages on the language educators group. As groups form, specific discussions will be “pushed” there and not to the general area.
We think this will happen naturally over time, but also wanted you to know you have a very important role in how this community functions. If you have a suggestion or comment you can leave it here, or click on “contact us” in the top right-hand corner of any page in the community to send an e-mail. We look forward to working with you to make this an interactive and valuable tool for language education professionals.