From jbharris@tenet.edu Mon Jan 3 20:04:38 1994 Return-Path: Received: from abernathy.tenet.edu (Kay-Abernathy.tenet.edu) by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) for /com/archive/cube-lovers id AA28829; Mon, 3 Jan 94 20:04:38 EST Received: by abernathy.tenet.edu id AA16334 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for CUBE-LOVERS@AI.AI.MIT.EDU); Mon, 3 Jan 1994 19:02:39 -0600 Date: Mon, 3 Jan 1994 19:02:13 -0600 (CST) From: Judi Harris Subject: Volunteers Requested To: CUBE-LOVERS@life.ai.mit.edu Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO SHARE WHAT YOU KNOW WITH PRE-COLLEGE STUDENTS AND TEACHERS BY ELECTRONIC MAIL? Recent estimates indicate that there are now more than 300,000 classroom teachers from primary, middle, and secondary schools who hold accounts on the Internet. This makes a very special kind of learning available to them: one which directly involves subject matter experts communicating with students and teachers about their specialties, via electronic mail. With support from the Texas Center for Educational Technology, we (at the University of Texas at Austin) have piloted and are now expanding an Internet-based service (the "Electronic Emissary") that brings together pre-college students, their teachers, and subject matter experts (SMEs) electronically, helping them to create telecomputing exchanges centered around the students' learning in the SMEs' disciplines. For example, * A class studying South America could learn about recent global environmental research results from a scientist who studies rainforest deforestation in Brazil. * A class studying geometry might "talk" electronically with Euclid, who is actually a mathematics professor. * A class studying the future of education might converse with an emerging technologies specialist from California's Silicon Valley. * A class studying American History might electronically interview Harry Truman, who is really a curator with the National Archives. * A class exploring the rapidly-changing governmental structures that are emerging in what was once the Soviet Union might correspond with a group of graduate political science students at a university in the CIS. * Or, a class reading _Huckleberry Finn_ might correspond with an African-American studies scholar about the repercussions resulting from the enacting of the Emancipation Proclamation. In successive phases of the project, increasing numbers of SMEs or SME groups are needed to correspond regularly (approximately 4 times per week) with primary, middle school, or secondary students and their teachers (1 SME or expert group per class, study group, or "special student"). Each electronic exchange will begin with approximately 2 weeks of project planning via electronic mail between the SMEs and the teachers. Communications with students will begin on mutually convenient dates, and will continue for previously-arranged periods of time, usually between 2 and 10 weeks. Subject matter expert volunteers are sought in all disciplines, but there is immediate need for SMEs with expertise in: ~ gravity and satellite motion ~ heat transfer ~ Hitler's rise to power during World War II ~ the Indian Wars (1870's & 1880's) ~ 20th century fragmentation due to weapons of war, especially the atom bomb ~ Maya Angelou (and other women in literature) ~ Native American literature, specifically Cherokee ~ George Orwell's _Animal Farm_ & Russian revolutions ~ personal finance ~ geometry ==> If you would like to find out more about ==> participating in this project, please send ==> electronic mail to Judi Harris, jbharris@tenet.edu. ==> Please include your name, institution, and areas of ==> expertise. ==> PLEASE RESPOND ASAP; teacher-SME pairs in the ==> specific areas requested above will be formed on ==> 1/12/93.