SmartDESKTOP is a collaboration portal for teachers in Indiana. EPIC uses SmartDESKTOP for its collaboration, resource sharing, and other teacher productivity activities. EPIC teachers have smartDESKTOP accounts issued in the workshops. Using the account information provided at the initiatl EPIC workshops, go to the smartDESKTOP Portal using the link at the left or by going to:

www.smartDESKTOP.org

What we use in SmartDESKTOP:

  • Announcements. Watch your Announcements dashboard for news and information about EPIC. Use this also as a messaging center for your study groups.
  • EPIC Community. All EPIC teachers will be members of this community. It has dedicated forums for EPIC participants to organize the work of the project.
  • Discussion Forums for all teachers sharing ideas about their units
  • School Study Groups. Each school will have ad hoc SmartDESKTOP communities formed around their own school's study group including their BSU liaison.
  • Resource Connection. Use the "ResCon" to find standards-based resources. Eventually, the refined and tested units from EPIC teachers will be listed in the ResCon!


Participating Online

Effective online discussion involves responding to the original prompt on the discussion board by making connections between the readings and actual teaching/learning situations. It also includes interacting with peers in a “discussion like” manner. Here is the basic process:
  1. Log in to SmartDESKTOP using the account information provided at the EPIC workshops
  2. Click on the Collaboration Tab at the top of the page
  3. Go to your designated EPIC forum group (one labeled as "private" for your grade level)
  4. Post your responses to the questions listed and discuss your peers’ responses too.


Using the Resource Connection

Teachers can use the Resource Connection to find educational resources by key word, grade level, standard, content area and/or other fields. In the case of a key word search, the results can be further refined by clicking on the "More Information..." per resource, where related standards can be selected for search criteria. For example, the three following curricular queries show search results for the linked text:

How did the Native American tribes use the various aspects of their [+] environments to survive?

Examine the social, emotional and physical changes in adolescents using the Diary of Anne Frank as a key text.

Celebration of the first Thanksgiving--Pilgrims and Wampanoags.


In each case, related standards can be examined by clicking on the linked standard which will show all resources in the results that share that standard.