TappedIN

The website I observed was Tappedin. There is a definition on the opening page of who are in the community. There is a link for those who are not familiar with this online community. There are also links to past newsletters, events calendar and a help page as well as a member or guest login. As I logged in, I found it interesting that it logs your IP address and you have to verify you are over the age of 18. You also have the option to enable live chat.
Once you are granted access, it takes you to the reception desk. It tells you the hours the help desk staff is there and if you have any questions, this is the place to ask them. This is very helpful when you are going into an area you are unfamiliar with. You can search “In this building”, “on this floor”, disussions, etc. I looked “in the building”. This area has different areas of learning broken down. For example, there are discussions for different subjects like art, language, math, science as well as subjects taught in technology and vocational schools. You can go into one of these areas and see personal members offices. There is also a section listed as featured passageways. These are areas of interest that members can go into to see references or look at discussion links.
This is an example of a knowledge-based learning community. The members are teachers/instructors or those studying to be a teacher/instructor. The teachers have the opportunity to communicate with other teachers. It is not limited to one subject. They can communicate with all teachers. The area I went into was titled “Teacher in training”. This area has a link section that are recommended for those interested in reading/learning more. There is also an introduction area where you can post a little bit about yourself. There is an administrator over this discussion board. She posts a brief welcome to those that post here. Some of the posts go back to 2007. There is not a lot of action in this particular discussion board. However, the goal is to introduce yourself and tell a little bit about where you want to study.
The structure of the community is that there is an “owner”. You are able to click on the owners name and you are able to see their profile. It states where they are from, what their experience is from and how long they have been a member of Tappedin. It also lists the other groups they are owners or members of. People can send messages directly to the owner or post to the discussion board. At the bottom of the screen you can see if there are any other members on line. You then have the opportunity to chat with who ever is in the “room”.
The identity of the group depends on which group you are entered in. When you look at the members in the room with you, you can see behind their name what role they play in the group. For instance, in the room I am in, there is one person that is working in the reception desk that is present as well as one member that has an office in TappedIn. Since I have been signed on as a quest, I have noticed no activity at all in a room.
From what I have been able to ascertain, the members of TappedIn have been members for several years. They are also active in more than one group. They are also from several different countries. The learning is done by several different ways, by online chatting, posting on discussion boards and also responding to others posts on the discussion boards. The owner of the discussion board responds to all those that post a comment. She answers questions as well as asks questions. This allows for dialog between the two and allows others to ask their own questions. The most helpful thing I have noticed is the links that are listed. These can be helpful resources in the forms of websites or documents.
I don’t know if I just got on at the wrong time. For me, I didn’t get a lot out of this group. However, I didn’t have anyone else on where I was looking. I looked in several different areas but only wrote about one. I would have thought that since this was an international community that there would be more activity around the clock. One suggestion I could make is when you sign on as a guest, they should have the next information on what to expect as far as how to get information instead of leaving it for someone to go into the FAQ’s. When I did go into the FAQ’s, is talks about those that are already members and their problems of forgetting their log in name and password. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of information on how to use the site effectively.