Descriptions of Discussion Groups
Description of Online Library
In his book "Darwin Among the Machines", George Dyson quotes Samuel Butler as saying that "Life is making two and two equal five." It is only in collaboration with others that the full potential of our collective wisdom will be realized. Our professional development community is designed to develop a synergy among school psychologists so that each person builds upon the strengths of others.
The goals of the Network are to provide school psychologists and graduate students in school psychology with...
- a supportive and collaborative community that facilitates their continuous professional development;
- consultative assistance with respect to difficult or challenging work-related problems;
- rich and varied professional development experiences;
- peer support in regard to their consultative work with other professionals, such as teachers; and
- skills and confidence they need to meaningfully integrate computer-mediated communication into their daily work.
In addition, we intend to evaluate
the implementation and outcomes of the Network and publish relevant findings
(Interviews,
Presentations and Publications).
Although the number of participants has expanded over time and the computer-mediated
community has grown in size, we continue to maintain the intimacy and continuity
of the computer-mediated discussions by allowing all participants to interact
through theme-oriented groups. The research team uses a powerful but easy
to use "groupware" product, FirstClassª, to design the individual groups.
Theme-Oriented Discussion
The theme folders allow participants to focus
on peer support/consultation with respect to difficult or challenging cases,
as well as to share information on a variety of topics related to school psychology.
To maximize the productivity of the discussions, each discussion group has
a facilitator, who is an experienced member of the community.
(Please note this picture is only an
example. Join the Network to sign up to use the actual
online forums.)
The picture above is the latest desktop that some of the participants see when they logon to the Global School Psychology Network. Each folder icon represents a different service or discussion area. We strive to customize services to people's interests. Therefore, different individuals will have different folders on their desktops.
- Assessment - discussion area related to methods and uses of assessment, whether social, emotional, cognitive or behavioral.
- Cases - in depth confidential discussion area related to the nuances of member's specific cases.
- Elementary-Preschool - discussion area related to working with children grades Pre-K through 5.
- Theme of the Month
- discussion area for everyone that features a new theme each month.
- Community Forum - discussion area for everyone on the GSPN.
- News Groups - provides access to Internet discussion groups from outside of our Network.
- Project Updates - provides updates about the GSPN.
- State Forum - discussion
area for school psychology issues pertaining to a state (e.g., Massachusetts).
Other states or countries wanting to set up their own discussion forums
should contact Lou Kruger (l.kruger@neu.edu
).
- Mailbox - allows participants to send private messages to one or two individuals.
- Interests and Expertise - an on-line database of the interests of the GSPN members.
- Library - an on-line library that contains a variety of informational resources (see below)
- Software - provides the latest versions of the software to access the GSPN.
- Help - provides help on using the messaging system.
Other possible folders which are not shown in the picture above:
- Leadership and Boards - discussion area for board members of state school psychology associations.
- Bullying
Course -
one of various periodically offered on-line courses for members. The courses
are related to a specific topic in school psychology that participants can
take for continuing education credit.
Red flags located in the upper right-hand corner of each folder
indicate that there have been new entries made in that folder since the last
logon.
On-line Library
- Book Reviews - school pscyhology book reviews written by GSPN members.
- Document Exchange - resources (e.g., behavioral contracts) that can be downloaded.
- FBA Readings - papers related to functional behavioral assessment.
- Parent / Child Resources - readings related to both childhood issues and parenthood.
- Multicultural Folder - information about cultural issues related to school psychology.
- Readings on GSPN - papers about the Global School Psychology Network.
- Web Resources - annotated lists of valuable web sites (e.g., character education)
- More Resources Are On the Way!