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Tapped In^®

B.J. Berquist, Judith Fusco, Richard Godard, Larry Hamel, Donna Hendry, Michael Hutchison, Melissa Koch, Patti Schank

The Tapped In Online Community Testbed Project develops and studies the online social and technological infrastructures needed to support a large and diverse community of education professionals. Since the virtual doors of Tapped In opened in 1997, it has become the online home to a community of over 20,000 K-12 teachers, librarians, teacher education faculty, professional development staff, researchers, and other education professionals.

Through Tapped In, educators can attend activities hosted by education organizations, conduct their own activities, take online courses, bring their students online, experiment with new ways to teach, or expand their circle of colleagues by participating in community-wide events. Teacher professional development projects, university teacher education programs, and school districts become part of the community through "tenant" partnerships. Tapped In staff and volunteers from the community help orient new users, form interest groups, and plan and conduct online activities.

The technology that supports the community is a Web-based multi-user virtual environment that provides synchronous and asynchronous communication mechanisms and support tools. The system was recently redesigned and engineered with a grant from NSF to provide new capabilities and enable more effective management of research data. For more information or a tour, go to http://tappedin.org or contact Mark Schlager.

Began 9/1996 (current)

Funders & Clients 

National Science Foundation
Sun Microsystems
Walter S. Johnson Foundation

Partners 

• Milwaukee Public Schools
• Pepperdine University
• The Library of Congress
• Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network (former)
• Math Forum @ Drexel University (former)
• New Haven Unified School District, CA (former)
• University of California, Berkeley, Lawrence Hall of Science (former)
• University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin Center for Education Research (former)

Publications

• Schlager, M., Farooq, U., Fusco, J., Schank, P., & Dwyer, N. (2009). Analyzing online social networking in professional learning communities: Cyber networks require cyber-research tools. Journal of Technology Education, 60(1), 86-100.
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• Farooq, U., Schank, P., Harris, A., Fusco, J. & Schlager, M. (2008). Sustaining a community computing infrastructure for online teacher professional development: A case study of designing Tapped In. Journal of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (JCSCW).
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• Schlager, M. S. & Fusco, J. (2004). Teacher professional development, technology, and communities of practice: Are we putting the cart before the horse? In S. Barab, R. Kling, and J. Gray (Eds.), Designing Virtual Communities in the Service of Learning. Cambridge University Press.
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• Schank, P., Harris, A., & Schlager, M.S. (2002). Painting a Landscape onto TAPPED IN 2. Presented to the "The Role of Place in Shaping Virtual Community" workshop at the Computer Supported Cooperative Work Conference, New Orleans, LA, November 16-20, 2002.
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• Schlager, M. S., Fusco, J., & Schank, P. (2002). Evolution of an on-line education community of practice. In K. A. Renninger and W. Shumar (Eds.), Building virtual communities: Learning and change in cyberspace. NY: Cambridge University Press, 129-158.
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• Derry, S. J., Gance, S. Gance. L. L., & Schlager, M. S. (2000). Toward assessment of knowledge building practices in technology-mediated work group interactions. In S. Lajoie (Ed.) Computer as Cognitive Tools II. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
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• Fusco, J., Gehlbach, H., & Schlager, M. S., (2000). Assessing the impact of a large-scale online teacher professional development community. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference for the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education, (pp. 2178-2183).
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• Schank, P., Fenton, J., Schlager, M. S., & Fusco, J. (1999). From MOO to MEOW: Domesticating technology for online communities. In C. Hoadley (Ed.), Computer Support for Collaborative Learning (CSCL) 1999, pp. 518-526. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
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• Kozma, R.B. & Schank, P. (1998). Connecting with the twenty-first century: Technology in support of educational reform. In D. Palumbo & C. Dede (Eds.), Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development 1998 Yearbook: Learning and Technology, pp. 3-27. Alexandria, VA: American Society for Curriculum Development.
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• Schlager, M. S., Fusco, J., & Schank, P. (1998, December). Cornerstones for an online community of education professionals. IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, Special Issue: Wired Classrooms: The Internet in K-12. (Editors: Foster and Ginsberg).
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• Schlager, M. S., & Schank, P. (1997). TAPPED IN: A new on-line community concept for the next generation of Internet technology. In R. Hall, N. Miyake & N. Enyedy (Eds.), Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Computer Support for Collaborative Learning, pp. 231-240. Hillsdale, NJ; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc..
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Research Areas

Learning Environments
Teacher Learning

Keywords 

communities of practice
online communities
participatory design
teacher collaboration