For the last two weeks, I have been involved in the roll-out of a new electronic Teacher Community for AP Biology. Somehow or other (really due to my inability to say no to anything related to my favorite course), I was asked to be the moderator of the space. Since launching last week, the Teacher Community has amassed ~1500 teachers and is putting on a few hundred more per day.
Previously, we all interfaced through an e-mail based “Electronic Discussion Group” (or EDG), but that is soon to go the way of the trilobite, with the Teacher Community taking its place. The Teacher Community is styled in a message-board structure, with the ability to converse and easily access archived conversations. Additionally, there is a resource library area, where any member can post resources of all kinds for the community to access.
All in all, I think the whole thing represents a big step forward for how teachers can communicate and collaborate with each other, and I’m pretty proud to be a part of it.
I have started to make a series of informative screencasts to help folks as they navigate over. If you are not a relevant party, but would like to get a view of the inside of the place, you might want to check them out, too.