Trisha Callihan is the director of the Eagle Writing Center. She currently serves as the SSWCA Website Curator.
Signing up for any type of online discussion can be daunting, as one never knows the level of participation needed or the technology requirements. The Secondary School Writing Centers Association (SSWCA) has hosted Digital Rountables this year in February, March, April, and June. The October Roundtable will take place on October 2nd from 7:00pm-8:00pm EST. You can sign up here. Below are a few of the basic steps to make sure you’re prepared for the Digital Roundtable discussion.
- Test out your internet connection and technology to make sure all elements are working. Participants have used either their laptop or cellphone to attend the session. The Digital Roundtable takes place in a video Google Hangouts platform, so you’ll need to have gmail account to participate. For troubleshooting on video/audio on the Google Hangouts platform, please see this link. You are encouraged to use your video and audio during the session, but if you feel uncomfortable with video, you are welcome to only use the audio option.
- Take a look at some of the guiding questions, and perhaps even write some of your own! The Digital Roundtable curators should email you earlier in the week with a reminder, a Google Doc with some guiding questions, and the link to the Google Hangout. Each of the Digital Roundtables has a general topic. Our past topics have been planning and proposing a session for SSWCA 2018, new directors and centers, outreach and legitimizing writing center work, and data collection in the center. If you’ve been reading any texts in regards to the topic, you’re encouraged to bring them along and share your knowledge as well.
- Attend the session with an open mind. The sessions for the most part follow the guiding questions after introductions, but with any writing center discussion, the host(s) will adjust the conversation to the needs of the directors or tutors attending the session.
- Follow up. Read the blog post notes and talk with the other people that attended the session. Feel free to reach out to sswca.board@gmail.com if you want any additional resources of if you have any additional questions.
I hope this quick overview was helpful in understanding some of the main components to participated in these events. Feel free to email sswca.board@gmail.com with any additional questions.