By Debra S.
Knutson, SDCTE Website Manager
In early October, the SDCTE web site
<www.sdcte.dsu.edu> premiered.
This site is intended to be a resource for all SDCTE members, and we hope
it will also attract South Dakota English teachers who haven’t yet joined
SDCTE.
Background
When I attended the Y2K Regional NCTE/NWP
Conference in Fargo in August, I had my first opportunity to network with
members of SDCTE. At a session for
SDCTE members, Nancy Kampfe asked for ideas on how to promote our organization,
and someone suggested an SDCTE web site and listserv.
Nancy said that SDCTE had been looking at these possibilities for some
time but hadn’t found anyone willing to host them.
Since I’m new to South Dakota and
eager to become involved in regional activities, I volunteered to request web
space from Dakota State. A few
months later, the framework for the SDCTE web site was online.
The Site
When I studied the web sites of other
NCTE affiliates <http://www.ncte.org/affiliates/>,
looking for ideas for the SDCTE site, I noted that the opening page for each
site often featured a state map or a picture of an easily recognizable state
icon. Such visual aids distinguish
the sites and are helpful to anyone researching multiple affiliates.
Therefore, when trying to decide on an appropriate opening icon for SDCTE,
I went with the obvious. When you
log onto the SDCTE web site, you’ll be greeted with a picture of Mt. Rushmore,
the one feature that most “outsiders” immediately associate with South
Dakota.
After you enter the site, you have six
choices: you can look up the executive board, check out the announcements page,
view the South Dakota literary map, see how to become a member of SDCTE, read
about English Notes, or link to a number of other sites.
Room to Grow
Many of the SDCTE pages are under
construction, but the site is designed so that it can be expanded easily.
And I’m hoping for your input! Send
me the URLs of your favorite English Studies web sites, along with a sentence or
two describing each site, and I’ll add them to the links page.
If your school is sponsoring any activities you’d like to promote, send
me the information, and I’ll add it to the announcements page.
We’d also like to include more
photographs at the site. One SDCTE
member suggested adding “a large photo or collage of SDCTE
teachers—representing all teaching levels of our membership—actively engaged
in teaching and learning” to the site. Her
point is well taken, but SDCTE does not have a library of photographs at this
time. However, if you have any
photos of previous SDCTE conferences or of English Studies activities at your
school, and if you would like to see them added to the SDCTE web site, send them
to me. I will scan them and return
them to you. And be forewarned: when you attend the SDCTE Spring
Conference, you may find yourself part of a photo op!
I’ll be bringing a digital camera, hoping to get some shots to add to
our web site.
Email Discussion List
The most recent addition to the SDCTE
site is an invitation to join our new email discussion list.
In the initial list message, Nancy Kampfe welcomes subscribers and
invites South Dakota English teachers to “post your questions, comments and
concerns.” She adds that one goal
of the list is “to erase some of our isolation and provide a helping hand
across the miles of our great state.” You
can subscribe to the list at <http://www.egroups.com/group/sdcte>.
Messages sent to the list are automatically archived. Subscribers have three options for viewing messages: you can have messages emailed to you as they come in, you can request that the messages be sent in digest form, or you can read them off of the web. At this writing, 15 of our members have joined the list, but the actual discussion hasn’t taken off yet. Please consider subscribing to the list and sharing your ideas and concerns with other SDCTE members.
Let me again encourage you to send me any material that would enhance our new SDCTE web site. While I’m specifically interested in the URLs for links, and in announcements and photographs, I’m eager to hear other ideas you may have for expanding the site. You can email me at Deb.Knutson@dsu.edu or snail mail me at: Deb Knutson, Assistant Professor of English, College of Liberal Arts, Dakota State University, Madison, SD 57042.