I’m looking for input for an article to appear in the next issue of The Language Educator about the ACTFL Online Community. I’m hoping that many of you might be willing to make some comments about the site to help us promote it among the greater ACTFL membership. Since it is new, I understand that no one has had really extensive involvement but I would really appreciate if you’d give some of your thoughts about using it so far, as well as how you hope to use it as more and more language educators become involved.
Questions about ACTFL Online Community
1. Do you use other social networking sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.)? What do you like about online social networking? What do you hope to gain from taking part in the ACTFL Online Community? How is this the same or different from what you get from other sites?
2. What aspects of the ACTFL Online Community have you explored so far or do you plan to explore? (For example: Searching out and adding contacts, Writing or reading blog entries, Posting documents to share with colleagues, Joining different communities/networks/eGroups, etc.) Obviously since this is new, most ACTFL members are just signing up and getting started, so you can also answer on what you hope to do as more language educators continue to join and take part.
3. Have you accessed any of the handouts from the 2009 Convention in the library? Have you uploaded your handouts to this section? What do you think about offering these resources in this section?
4. Do you have any suggestions for ACTFL members who have not yet gotten involved in the community?
5. Do you have any other comments you want to make about this effort by ACTFL to create greater connections in the language education community?
Please email your responses to me at scutshall@actfl.org. Thanks so much for your input!
Sandy Cutshall, Editor
The Language Educator