Tapped In is an online community of teachers and educators.  When you register as a member of Tapped In (it's free), you can find resources, join groups, and even set up your own private virtual office where you can hold text chat meetings with your students, friends, or colleagues in the classroom or around the world. (You can also attend chats as a guest, but we recommend that you join Tapped In.  As a member, you will receive chatlogs of any chats you participate in via email.  These chatlogs can be very useful for tracking down URLs that were typed into the chat or for reviewing what was said.)

You can find a short tutorial on chatting at Tapped In here.

We have created a group room for our session: EVO09 Enhancing Lessons, or EVOEnhance_Grp for short.  The main purpose for creating this room is to have a place for synchronous (live) text chat.  You will need to join the group in order to access the room.  First, you will need to register as a member of Tapped In (see the video tutorial above).  Here is how to join the group:

1. Click on the Search tab at the top right of the Tapped In screen.
2. Click on Groups (third from the left).
3. Type EVO09 Enhancing Lessons in the Name/Purpose box and click on Find It.
4. Click on EVO09 Enhancing Lessons.
5. Click on Join this Group.

Once you have joined the group, it will appear on the drop-down menu at the top of the screen just underneath the Tapped In, Help, and Search tabs.  To go to the group room, click on the inverted triangle on the right side of this menu to show the choices; select EVO09 Enhancing Lessons; and click on Go!

If no one is in the chatroom in EVO09 Enhancing Lessons, you can leave a message on the whiteboard by clicking on Whiteboard in the sidebar.  When you see the whiteboard on the screen, click on write on it.  Type your message in the box and then click on Write on Whiteboard (you may have to scroll down to see that).  If you just want to read the whiteboard notes, use the scroll bar (on the right) to scroll down the Welcome screen to the bottom.  (The whiteboard is usually "hidden" by the chatroom window.)

If you have any questions or just want to try live text chat, a team member should be in the room every day between 3:00 and 3:30 GMT (check the Time Zone Converter at http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html for your local time) throughout the session.  If that is not convenient for you, post a request to the Yahoo! Group or email one of us to make an appointment.