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Dr. Alice A. Christie's University Classes: EDT 547/548

Course Description: Using Technology Across the Curriculum

EDT 547: Using Technology in Language Arts and Social Studies and EDT 548: Using Technology in Mathematics and Science Education are being taught jointly this year and are collectively called Using Technology Across the Curriculum.

This course provides hands-on exploration of technologies and their applications across all curricular areas. It is geared to meet the needs of K-12 educators and emphasizes collaboration between participants. Theoretically, technologies are viewed as useful tools for integrating curriculum and for helping educators re-vision curriculum. Social, philosophical and theoretical issues surrounding the use of technologies in mathematics and science education are explored in the class readings and discussions.

Student Learning Outcomes

An important goal of this course is for students to be empowered by technologies to enhance instruction in their classrooms. Students should gain a solid understanding of the many emerging ways tchnology can be appropriately used in their classrooms as well as the motivation to use technology for personal and professional purposes. Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:

1. demonstrate an understanding of and an ability to use email and a variety of Web 2.0 applications to exchange information with others;
   
2. demonstrate an understanding of and an ability to use a blog to communicate with others;
   
3. demonstrate an ability to use a wide variety of hardware, software, and Internet-based tools that are applicable for mathematics, science, language arts or social studies education within elementary or secondary classrooms;
   
4. demonstrate an understanding of and an ability to use a variety of browser tools: navigation, search engines, bookmarks, and others to locate and use electronic resources available on the Internet;
   
5. demonstrate the ability to utilize the Internet to locate resources to engage their elementary or secondary students in meaningful learning;
   
6. demonstrate the ability to evaluate the pedagogical soundness of resources available through the Internet;
   
7. develop a WebQuest or digital video that incorporates the use of technologies and technological resources by both teacher and students;
   
8. demonstrate an understanding of exploratory learning as facilitated by electronic simulations and electronic manipulatives;
   
9. develop a unit of study facilitated by electronic simulations and electronic manipulatives;
   
10. demonstrate an understanding of national and state content Standards as they apply to using technologies across all content area;
    
11. develop (through the integration of the class readings, class discussions, personal use of technologies, and personal philosophy of education) a theoretically informed argument for using technologies to enhance and/or re-vision curricula;
    
12. demonstrate the ability to synthesize relevant information regarding the use of technologies in elementary or secondary education;
    
13. deal effectively with the frustrations that are inherent in using technologies.

Required Texts and Materials

1. Online Readings
   
2. A Flash Drive to store files
   
3. Notebook for recording notes during demonstrations and exploration

Course Format

Class Policies

Assignments: Late assignments will be penalized 1 point (out of a possible 10 points) each day they are submitted past the due date.

Attendance and Participation: Since this class is highly participatory, attendance and a high level of participation are mandatory. Please sign-in at the beginning of class on the attendance sheet located on the bulletin board in the classroom. Each missed class will result in the loss of 4 points in participation (out of a possible 8 points). Students who miss more than two of our eight classes cannot pass the course. Each missed class will result in the loss of 4 points in participation (out of a possible 8 points).

Late Arrival to Class: Classes are carefully planned to maximize learning. Late arrivals disrupt class and reduce learning. Each 30 minutes missed due to late arrival will result in the loss of 1/2 point in participation (out of a possible 8 points).

Cell Phones and Pagers: Please turn OFF all cell phones and pagers during class.

Cheating: Cooperative or collaborative learning is encouraged! However, understand the fine line between collaboration and cheating. Turning in the work of another person is considered cheating and offenders are subject to university disciplinary action.

Disabilities: If you have a disability, please tell us at the beginning of the semester. We will do all we can to enhance your learning experience.

University Policies

Course Assignments

1. Readings and Reading Response Sharing (10% of final grade)
   
   You will use any Web 2.0 toos to exchange ideas with your instructors and classmates about your assigned online readings. Choose tools that help you communicate your ideas effectively AND model effective teaching/learning strategies for 21st century students. For example, when sharing your ideas on the readings on how social networking is changing the way people relate to each other, you might create a del.icio.us page rather than write a more traditional essay or Powerpoint presentation. Note: Create one site from which you will link all your reading responses. Send me the URL by January 23, 2008. Example from previous class.
   
   
2. What's New? (5% of final grade)
   
   Being aware of news that is important to today's learners is one of the professional responsibilities of all teachers. Out class will create a maintain a blog on recent and newsworthy ideas to make language arts, social studies, science and math relevant every day to your students. Post one news story, your summary, and a strategy for incorporating this story in your classroom to our blog. Example from a previous class. Post to our blog at least four times throughout the semester.
   
   Using Daily News in K-12 Classrooms Blog
   
   
3. Wiki Article (10% of final grade)
   
   You and your teammates will contribute to and collectively write a wiki article entitled Using Web 2.0 Tools in Education during the online segment on our class. Your individual efforts will be part of a semester-long project to share our collective understanding and examples of how K-12 teachers can incorporative a variety of Web 2.0 tools in their classrooms. See Dr. Chrisite's Web 2.0 Tools for Educators.
   
   
4. TeacherTube Video (20% of final grade)
   
   This assignment is designed to provide a tool for sharing an Instructional Strategy with other teachers. It will also familiarize you with the use of digital video and possible tools to disseminate your information.
   
• Review the following web-based videos:
  • Educational Philosophy:
    • Have You Been Paying Attention?
    • Did You Know - by Karl Fisch
    • A Vision of K-12 Students Today
    • Digital Students @ Analog Schools
    • Web 2.0: The Machine is Us/ing Us
    • When I Grow Up...
  • Student Project:
    • Digital Ethnography Project
    • Student Engagement
    • Building a Community of Learners Using a Reverse Mentoring Model
  • Software How-To:
    • Blogger and Flickr Tutorial
    • Creating a Podcast
    • Using del.icio.us
  • Software HOW-NOT-TO:
    • How NOT To Use Powerpoint
    • How NOT to Teach
    • Introducing the Book
  • Educational Strategies:
    • How to Use Podcasts in the Classroom
    • Electronic Portfolios for Assessment
  • Technology Concepts:
    • Commoncraft Videos:
      • Online Photo Sharing in Plain English
      • Blogs in Plain English
      • Social Bookmarking in Plain English
      • Wikis in Plain English
• Brainstorm three different ideas you would like to explore
• Create a 1-2 minute video
• Submit to TeacherTube
5. Web 2.0 Resources for Your Classroom (10% of final grade)
   
   During this class, you will have ample time to explore the Internet. So that this experience has some meaningful direction, you will develop a Web 2.0 Resource Site for your students in which you select a minimum of 15 sites which you feel are helpful in YOUR classroom. See Dr. Christie's Web 2.0 Resources.
   
   Please use a format similar to this:
   
   
   • Name of the site
   • URL (address) of the site
   • Student assignment for using this tool.
   • Example
     
6. GPS, GoogleEarth, or Geocaching Project (15% of final grade)
   
   You will create a content-specific, standards-based unit that incorporates the use of GoogleEarth, GPS capabilities and/or geocaching that is appropriate for your grade and content level. Be sure to incorporate spreadsheets/graphing into this unit. See Dr. Christie's Resources.
   
   
7. Web-based Virtual Field Trip (10% of final grade)
   
   You will develop a Virtual Field Trip supporting a unit you will teach this year. Your field trip could (a) provide background information for a class project, (b) be the "meat" of a class project (including links, information, visual media, and/or information for students to create the final product of your project), (c) serve as the assessment piece for a class project. Example
   
   
   You should expect to list a minimum of 20 sites, but you may include as many as you wish. Be sure to property cite all photos and information gathered from the Internet! Below are some resources and additional examples:
   
   
   • Dr. Christie's Web-based Field Trip Guide
   • Creating a Virtual Field Trip Using Annotated Photographs | Rubric
   • Discover and Create Your Own Field Trips
   • Take A Trip - Virtually
   • Digital Content Rubrics
   • Rubric for evaluating how well your students learn from Virtual Field Trips
     
8. Research Paper: Theoretically Informed Argument for the Use of Technologies to Enhance Teaching and Learning (10% of final grade)
   
   You will write a synthesis paper that explains specific reasons and ways technologies can be used to enhance the teaching and learning at the elementary, middle or high school level. The paper should include both a general argument for the use of technologies in education, as well as specific examples of technologies and their uses in these classrooms. You are encouraged to cite class readings, among others, in the reference section of your paper. You will probably wish to focus on key objectives for this class in this paper.
   
9. Reflections (5% of final grade)
   
   You will write a 4-5 page Reflection Paper that speaks of your growth on each course assignment.
   
10. Participation (5% of final grade)
    
    See Attendance and Late Arrival to Class Policies Above

Course Schedule for Spring 2008

Face-to-face classes are indicated in white, online classes in orange. All electronic assignments should be placed/saved in the ASU Class Server on or before their due date.

Evaluation

We use the following grading scale: