American Bar AssociationAmerican Bar AssociationDivision for Public EducationDivision for Public Education

Student Orientation Guide

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Welcome

• The American Bar Association (ABA) Division for Public Education is pleased to welcome you as a participant in the 2009 National Online Youth Summit (NOYS).

• We trust this year’s (NOYS) topic, Up In Arms: Understanding the Second Amendment Debate,” will be of interest to you and engage you in vigorous debate with your peers.

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What is NOYS?

• National, web-based civic engagement program designed by the ABA

• Offers high school students the chance to participate in a virtual community of their peers while also learning about and critically evaluating a different timely, law-related topic each year

• 2009 NOYS will provide the opportunity to study, research, and analyze the Second Amendment, engage in civil discourse online with students from around the country

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2009 NOYS Participants

• This year’s Summit: – 24 schools– 16 states

• Participants hail from Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and the state of Washington.

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Orientation Overview

• This orientation will assist you in becoming familiar with NOYS, specifically:– Summit Terms

– Discussion Board Communication

– Online Conduct & Student Responsibilities

– Navigating FuseTalk

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Summit Terms

• Asynchronous– Asynchronous means “happening at different times.” Classroom

discussion is “synchronous” discussion. It occurs at the same time. With asynchronous discussion, participants contribute to the discussion over periods of hours, days, or weeks, at different times.

• FuseTalk– FuseTalk is a type of web conferencing software, which we will use

during the Summit. Registered users are able to enter a FuseTalk discussion board only with assigned login names and passwords. Users are then able to read messages posted by other registered users and respond to the messages.

• Discussion Board– Summit participants, students, teachers, and ABA staff will

communicate with one another in an online discussion board composed of Categories, Topics, and Messages. There is one Category for each school. Your teacher will create Topics within each Category. You will post your work as Messages within Topics.

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Discussion Board Communication

• Discussion boards allow you to have a discussion about a topic with other people without having to be in the same place at the same time.

• There are nine student activities. Some activities require discussion with students in your class.

• Some activities require discussion with students from other schools that are part of your “school cluster.”

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Tips for Effective Communication

Follow directions for Summit activities – discussions will center on a particular activity with a prescribed beginning and end. Your teacher will provide you with the activity, homework due dates, and the discussion board category you will work in.

Stay on topic.

Construct well thought-out statements.

Include facts to support your opinions.

Paragraphs should be short: no more than 3 - 4 sentences per paragraph related to an idea.

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Use a new paragraph to express each idea.

The discussion board is a civil discussion forum. Do not use all CAPS when typing.

Insert double-spaces between paragraphs for the ease of the reader.

Prior to posting a message, complete your work in a word processing program to perfect your draft, correct your spelling, and check for complete sentences. Cut and paste your final draft into a Message and post it into the appropriate Topic. Your teacher may require you to print out your responses to keep in a portfolio to hand in upon request.

Be respectful of others, their points of view, and their skills.

Tips for Effective Communication

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Who is Who?

• Teachers– If you see a (T) after someone’s name in the “From:” line in a message in

FuseTalk, that person is a teacher. In addition to your teacher, other teachers who will be supervising students may respond to a message that you have posted in your School’s Category.

– Example: Message Posted by Teacher: John Smith (T) Brentwood Schools

• Students– You should sign each of your messages by typing your first name, first initial of

you last name, and your school name after the text of the message. All students in the Summit have been given these instructions. This is how you will be able to identify other students in the online discussion board.

– Example: Message Posted by Student: Mark K. George Washington High

• ABA Staff– From time to time a member of the ABA staff may wish to enter your

discussion. They will sign their messages with their full names and “ABA staff.” – Example: Message Posted by ABA Staff: Atticus Finch, ABA staff

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Online Conduct

Safety!

The ABA FuseTalk forum site is a private site. Only individuals who have been

issued login names and passwords may access the discussion board.

The rules and reminders that follow are for your safety!

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Rules & Reminders

The discussion board is an educational environment.

Participation in this program is a privilege. Do not share your FuseTalk password with anyone other than your teacher.

No personal information is to be exchanged in an online discussion.

Participate in your assigned Categories. Your teacher will know the names of your assigned Category.

Photographs of you or other students are not to be transmitted through the discussion board.

Rules and behavior that apply to your conduct when you are in your classrooms in school also apply to you when you are in a discussion board.

Navigating FuseTalk

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1. The Student Discussion Board can be accessed on the ABA NOYS website at http://www.abanet.org/publiced/noys/09/home.shtml.

2. Click on Student Login in the Registered Users Login section. The following login page will appear.

Accessing FuseTalk and Logging In

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3. Enter your login name (in the “Username” field) and the password (in the “Password” field) that were assigned to you by the ABA, and click “Log In”.

4. When you log in to FuseTalk for the first time you will be presented with a standard discussion board terms of service agreement. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click “I Accept.” You will not be allowed to proceed if you do not accept the terms of service.

5. Note: Your teacher will provide you your login information on February 13!

Accessing FuseTalk and Logging In

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Three Levels of Organization in FuseTalk

• Categories– After you log in, you will see a list of Categories on the

left-hand side of your screen. There will be one category for each school. Categories are at the highest level of the folder structure and can only be created by a discussion board administrator.

• Topics– Within each category, your teacher will post Topics.

Your teacher will ask you to post replies to the Topics.

• Messages– Within each Topic, you will see Messages. You will be

posting messages, reading messages, and replying to messages.

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Threaded Discussion

• A “thread” is a series of messages that all reply to one topic. Threads are very useful in online discussion boards because they make it easier to organize discussion and find relevant messages.

• It is very important to reply to Topics as instructed by your teacher. Doing so ensures that: Your message appears as part of the appropriate

discussion thread.

Your teacher and other students can find your message and reply to it.

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Posting a Message

Step 1: Click on the Category for your school.

Step 2: Click on the topic as instructed by your teacher and post a Message as a reply to

a Topic.

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Replying to a Topic

There are two ways to reply to a Topic.

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Using the “Reply” Key

Method One: Use the Reply key• Click on “Reply” at the lower right-hand

corner (green arrow).• Type your reply in the window that appears.• Sign your message. Remember to sign using

your first name, first initial of your last name, and your school name (e.g., Mark K. George Washington High).

• Click “Reply to Topic.” (see Figure 3, next slide).

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Figure 3: “Reply to Topic” button indicated by the red arrow

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Using the “Quote” Key

Method Two: Use the Quote key• Click on “Quote” at the lower right-hand

corner (yellow arrow).• Type your message, sign it.• Click on “Reply to Topic.” • If you use the “quote” key, the original

message will appear in a box below your reply (see Figure 4).

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Figure 4: This screen shot shows what happens if you reply to a message using the “Quote” button.

The original message appears at the top, followed by the reply to the original message, which includes a boxed “quote” of the original message.

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Using “Reply” or “Quote”

• In most of your discussions you will use “Reply” to respond to other’s postings.

• When replying to some messages it may be more efficient to use “Quote.”

• Your teacher will provide you with posting instructions.

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Replying to Messages

• If you want to reply to a message, you use exactly the same tools as you used to reply to a Topic. To reply to a message: – Click on the message you want to reply to. – Click on “Reply” or “Quote” and follow exactly the

same steps as outlined above.• Tip: Use the Threaded View

– At the top right hand corner of the screen, you will see the words “Linear Threading.”

– Messages and replies are grouped together in the “Threading” view.

• When you click on “Threading,” you will see a list of all posts, including the name of the person who posted and the date and time of the posting. The messages will be arranged in order of message and replies. If someone has replied to your message, you will see their message under your post. See next slide for example.

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Threading view of all posts within the topic “Welcome Summit Applicants.” Arrow shows position of “Linear Threading” view function.

Threading View

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Posting New Topics

• For most of the Summit, you will post using the “Reply” button in response to your teacher’s Topics. However in Activities 3, 5, and 7, student will post “New Topics.”

• Your teacher will provide you with the name of the category in which you will work and post your “New Topic.” Once you click onto the category a screen similar to the next slide will appear.

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Click on “New Topic” as indicated.

Posting New Topic

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• After you click on “New Topic,” this screen appears. – Enter the topic name in the “message title” field. Keep the name short.– Type in your message or question. – Sign your message. Remember to sign using your first name, first initial of your

last name, and your school name. – When you have completed your message, click “Post Message.”– Your Topic will post immediately.

Posting a Topic

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Logging Off FuseTalk

• When you are finished using FuseTalk, be sure to log off.

• To log off of FuseTalk, click “Logout” on the menu bar.

• You will be automatically logged off if you:– Go to another site on the Web, or – Close your browser window.

• A different user will then be able to log on to the same computer using his or her own login name and password.

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Glossary of FuseTalk Icons

Icon Description

Represents a category with no associated topics.

Represents a category with one or more topics associated under it.

Represents a locked category. For access contact the board administrator.

Represents a new topic.

Represents a previously viewed topic.

Represents the print message function.

Represents the trash can.