FuseTalk Guide

American Bar AssociationAmerican Bar AssociationDivision for Public EducationDivision for Public Education

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Overview• The tutorials and exercises that follow are designed to familiarize you with

Fuse Talk, the web conferencing software used by the ABA for communication on the discussion boards.

• The guide provides tutorials and exercises on four basic FuseTalk functions used repeatedly throughout the Summit: Replying, Posting, Editing, and Attachments.

• Teacher Only Discussion Board – The primary vehicle for communication between teachers and with ABA staff.

• Student Discussion Board – The board used for all communication among students.

• Access the online forum on the ABA NOYS website at http://www.abanet.org/publiced/noys/. Click in the ‘Registered Users Login” section. Enter your login name (in the “Username” field) and the password (in the “Password” field) and click “Login.”

FuseTalk Levels of Organization

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FuseTalk - Three Levels of Organization• Categories:

– Categories are folders of collected topics relating to a specific aspect of that discussion board. Categories are at the highest level of the folder structure and can only be created by a discussion board administrator.

• Topics:– Topics are threads/discussions created within a category.

Multiple topics can exist within one category. Topics can be created by anyone logged onto the discussion board.

• Messages:– A message or many messages are found within a topic and

are related to one subject matter. Anyone that has logged onto the discussion board can post or reply to a message.

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Categories• Figure 1 displays the basic layout of

the Discussion Board screen. Categories are located on the left side of the discussion board as depicted in this screen shot from 2007 NOYS.

• The screen shows a category for Jefferson High School, Washington High School, Teachers Only, Feedback, and Software Questions. The Icons to the left of the category show whether the category contains messages, whether it is locked, etc.

Figure 1: You can return to this page at any time by clicking on “Discussion Board Home” in the menu at the top of the page (indicated by the red arrow).

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Topics • The screen shot at the right shows

the topic “Welcome Summit Applicants” (yellow arrow), which is within the category “2007 NOYS Software test” (green arrow).

• A topic message begins a new thread of discussion within a Category.

• Click on the topic to read all messages in that topic. All messages within the topic will be listed in chronological order. You can reply to the Topic, or to any of the messages within the Topic. Your reply will be posted under the message to which you replied.

Tutorial: Replying to a Topic

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Replying to a TopicThere 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

(indicated by the green arrow on the previous slide).• Type your reply in the window that appears.• Sign your message. Remember to sign using your

first name, your last name, (T) and your school name (e.g., Mike Smith (T) Washington High School).

• 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 (indicated by yellow arrow).• Type your message and 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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Hands-on Exercise• Log into the Teachers Only Discussion Board using

your login name and password. • After you log in, you will see a list of categories,

including two school cluster groups, an Updates & Information category, an Evaluation category, and a Software category.

• Complete the following exercises: – Click on Cluster Group A.– Find the post by Joe D. Jefferson High School– Post a reply to Joe D. Jefferson High School

Tutorial: Posting & Editing Topics

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Posting New Topics• Posting New Topics:

– First, select a category in which you would like to create a new topic. – Next, click on the category selected. – You will notice that a new menu option, “New Topic," appears in the

main menu. Select “New Topic” and a new window will appear giving you the ability to add a new topic.

Figure 5: The “New Topic” button is in the menu and the right-hand corner.

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Posting New Topics• After you click on “New Topic,” the screen below will appear.

– Enter the topic name in the “message title” field. Keep the name short.– Type in your message or question. – Sign your message (as previously demonstrated). When you have

completed your message, click “Post Message.”– Your Topic will post immediately.

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Editing A Posted Topic• Edit Topics by opening the topic message and clicking “Edit” at the bottom

right-hand corner. You can only edit topics you create, unless you are a board administrator.

• You can edit the topic title and summary, as well as the content of the Topic.

• After you edit a Topic, a message will appear with the Topic to indicate it has been edited, the name of the person who edited it, and the time and date.

• Please Note: Editing messages is performed in exactly the same way. As with topics you can only edit messages you originated (unless you are a board administrator).

**Posting Tip: Messages can be previewed prior to posting.**

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Hands-on Exercise Part I1. Click on school category “Cluster Group B.”

2. Make a new topic with the title “Discussion Starter Statement for Group 1.” Use the following text for your message:

Sixty-seven percent of Summit participants believe that school officials should not be able to discipline students who, while off-campus, post entries on social networking sites that may be disruptive to school classes. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why or why not?

3. Post your message.

4. Edit your message, changing sixty-seven percent to eighty-two percent.

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Hands-on ExercisePart II1. Visit the Updates & Information conference. 2. Find the message entitled “Welcome and congratulations!” from Wendy

Holtman.3. Reply to her message by posting any text you want, which will indicate

that you have been successful in navigating the board. 4. Post a new topic message. Title it with your first name. Include the

following information in the text of your message:

1. Your name; 2. Your town/city, and state; 3. If applicable, the number of summits you have participated in; 4. The subject of the class that will participate in the summit; 5. The grade (s) of your participating students;6. The number of students in your class.7. Sign your message with your name and your school name.

Attaching a File

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Attachments• Only Board Administrators can attach files on FuseTalk.

All teachers will be Board Administrators of the Student Discussion Board. (Which will also allow you to edit student topics and messages, if necessary).

• Students are not permitted to post attachments on FuseTalk. Please keep your login information confidential.

• Files can be attached when creating a new topic or replying to an existing topic.

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Attachments

• To attach a file follow these steps:– Click “New Topic,” “Reply,” or “Quote.”– Click “Attach File” located at the bottom of the

screen that appears.– Click “Browse” to locate file, and double click on

the selected file.– Click “Upload File.” File will now appear in File

Listing box.– Double-click file to attach to message.

Conference Views, Searches, Printing

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Threading & Linear ViewsYou can view messages in two ways:

1. “Threading” view (see figure 6)- provides a list of all posts, showing the name of the person who posted, the date and time of the posting, and the thread of messages (i.e. arranged in order of message and replies). Using this view, all replies to a message will appear directly under the original message. We strongly recommend that you use the “Threading” view so that messages and replies are grouped together.

2. “Linear” view (see figure 7)- shows all messages in chronological order. Using this view, replies to messages will not necessarily appear below the original message—everything will appear in the chronological order in which it was posted.

To change conference view:1. Click on “Profile.”2. Click on “Personal Options.”3. Change the setting from a “linear” view to a “threading” view.

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Threading View

Figure 6: “Threading” view of all postswithin the topic “WelcomeSummit Applicants.”

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Linear View

Figure 7: “Linear” view within the topic “Welcome Summit Applicants.”

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Searching for Messages• To search for messages, you can either:

– Click on “Search Discussion Board” in the main menu, or– Click on “advanced search” in the left hand navigation window.

Figure 8: Arrows indicate location of “Search Discussion Board” and “advanced search.”

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Searching for Messages• A search window will appear (Figure 9).

Select one or more categories to search from the “Forum Categories” window on the right side of the screen (red arrow in Figure 9).

• You can search:– By word or phrase,– By author,– For messages you have posted,– For messages within a date range, or– For messages posted by you.

• Tip: Keep Hard Copies of Students’ Messages.

– The search function is not foolproof. Our primary recommendation is to instruct students to print out all of the messages they write from Microsoft Word, and keep a portfolio to turn in to teachers.

Figure 9

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Printing Messages• Printing a single message:

– Select the print icon shown in the top right hand corner to print the message displayed in the same frame.

• Printing a topic and all messages within the topic:– Click on the topic you want to print.– Click on the “topic tools” drop down box. Select “print this

topic.”– A pop-up window will appear. Select “print this topic.”

Miscellaneous

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Logging Off FuseTalk• 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 DescriptionRepresents 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.

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Reporting Error Messages• Hopefully you will not have encountered any or very few

error messages, but if you have, please share them by starting a new topic message in the “Software” category. – Title your topic message “Errors from (your name).”– Be sure to provide as much information as you can so that

your colleagues can perhaps share their expertise on your problems. Such as: “I went to post a new topic, entered all of the information in all of the fields, hit “reply to topic” and (the problem happened/the error message I got was “…”).

– Include the browser and browser version information so teachers with similar browsers can assess whether their solutions might help you.

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Feedback• Visit the “Software” category and let us know what you think

by replying to the topic message entitled “Hello, Teachers! Please Read Me!”

• You may wish to answer the following questions when giving your feedback:– What aspects of FuseTalk did you find easy? – Could you access the categories easily?– Could you reply, post, edit, and attach messages without

difficulty?– What aspects of FuseTalk were difficult?