281 Tools and the Curriculum

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"Tools and the Curriculum" seamlessly blends basic technological applications with established areas of the curriculum. Students will explore software applications and technology tools as integrated facets of well-established teaching strategies. Learning and applying strategies to new and unique problem-solving situations is expected. In addition, participants in this cluster will use a number of communication procedures that enhance tool use including e-mail, online learning and research, and multimedia. In the process, students evaluate and synthesize theories of learning best suited to developing new instructional strategies.

[ Feedback from Faculty ]

Individual Feedback: Forum, Face to Face, and Tapped In
You extend yourself to help your peers and provide constructive and encouraging comments in the forum discussions. Your willingness to stretch yourself (i.e. the Math lesson for the final project), use new tools, and apply newly discovered information is what being part of the iMET program is all about. Keep up the good work! You are to be commended for your perseverance when the FTP login was not working. You were resourceful and found a work around on your own. Both your Inspiration lesson and your website are very well organized and well designed. Well done!

Group Feedback: Enthusiastic presenters utilized theme repetition with the inclusion of the ‘bunny hats’ – a nice touch. It was a little unclear as to how to use this resource in the classroom. Background music provided a good introduction; consider a plan for lowering the volume of the music while presenters speak. Group gave a good discussion of how this project could be expanded and used in the college curriculum. Citations missing in handout however, the addition of full text copies of the reference articles used was useful as participants would not have to search for the articles on their own. The lesson is age appropriate and well aligned with the chosen standards. Nice job.

[ Feedback from Peers ]

What an incredibly fun and stunning site – and it’s educational to boot! The site navigation is clear and so are the expectations of the students. The zip file of PDFs for the instructors is a great addition so that they have all of the resources they need to present the materials to their own classes. Finally, the video embedded in the activity page is engaging and speaks to 5th graders’ at their level.

The level of skill that went into creating this website is incredible, and I know kids would have fun learning fractions using your online game.  The website provided many valuable resources and downloads for instructors to utilize.  The “lesson” page was a little text-heavy, which made it somewhat difficult to follow, but still provided step-by-step directions on how to use the online games to teach fractions.  The use of images throughout the website provided helpful visual cues for what was being explained in each section. 

284 Problem Solving and Project Development

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Students will focus on integrating curriculum, equity, and/or staff development strands into an overall educational technology implementation strategy. Complex problem-solving techniques, research, distributed learning, methodology, and evaluation will be emphasized.

[ Feedback from Faculty ]

Individual Feedback: I thought your WebQuest on Assistive Technology  was well done. The topic fit the required content and the form included complete forms of the required elements. Your layout and design were also effective.

I knew when you walked into my office last year that you were something special and would do well. I think you have a bright future ahead and I wish you all of the best.

[ Feedback from Peers ]

Nice clean design and easy-to-read and easy-to-follow design.  The webquest itself is an interesting tour, and addresses a problem for an under served population. My only suggestion for any improvement would be to either have the sections have their own tabs, or to provide links in each section, back to the top of the page.  Having one continuous page is kind of hard to scroll through when looking from section to section. Overall a really nice job.

286 Special Topics in Educational Technology

etc. more plus Teaching Philosophy podcast

This course is intended to provide educators with a base of understanding in the area of networking and computer operations in order to facilitate the implementation of technology in educational environments.

[ Feedback from Faculty ]

Group Feedback: Interesting presentation given using pictures of the variety of labyrinths used in different cultures. The inclusion of a sample activity making or using a labyrinth would be a fun addition to the project. Webquest a good choice of lesson format. Transitions between speakers could be more coordinated but overall a good job was done by all group members.

[ Feedback from Peers ]

Mela's podcast was a vehicle to share her teaching philosophy with the listener. She was extremely well-prepared, yet sounded relaxed and unrehearsed. However, I had difficulty hearing her. There was an echo or feedback on the recording.  I liked that she used a favorite quote to anchor her philosophy.

Mela took an interesting approach to this assignment because she included the script of the podcast as well as the podcast itself.  You you could either read or listen or both -- in other words, she was accommodating multiple intelligences.  The podcast itself was simple and to the point, incorporating the short quote that clearly states the question that informs her teaching philosophy.  The podcast would have benefited from intro and outro music, but still clearly articulated what she wanted to say.

This is an impressive web quest. The design is both structurally and visually effective. I found it quite easy to understand the concept, learn more, and navigate around. As someone who teaches web design, I appreciated the clarity and conciseness in the delivery of the information. The visual design and clean layout enhanced the web quest material. The simplicity of this web quest echoes the topic of labyrinths and completely supports it. This web quest could be easily deployed to its intended audience, well done.

282 Strategies for Application and Presentation

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Develops techniques for presenting and teaching thinking skills and problem solving in schools. Students research social and cultural problems as well as local and curricular problems and apply teaching strategies that develop higher-order thinking processes. Inquiry and problem-based strategies are used and integrated with technological applications. Students design Web-based units that focus on logic as well as creative thinking that lead toward a solution to curricular or social and cultural problems. (282/283 class and final project overlapped each other)

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283 Staff Development and Presentation Appliciations

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The course explores the necessary elements that bring integrated technology to staff members. Students will use a variety of delivery methods for staff development that could include multimedia, the web, and hands-on integrated curricular activities teachers or other educators can use immediately with available technology. The course also includes scaffolding for completion of culminating experience Action Research projects. (282/283 class and final project overlapped each other)

[ Feedback from Faculty ]

Group Feedback: EDTE 282
Clean design and good navigation help the target audience. Audience is clearly identified. All the required elements are in place and done extremely well. Online test/assessment is well designed and integrated with the website. I liked the section on e‐mail. The e‐mail scavenger hunt is a great activity. I wasn’t aware of the wiredsafety.org service to handle forwards. What a great idea! Here is another link for your friends who send you spam chain e‐mail: http://www.thanksno.com/ . I liked that you also included an assessment for those taking the staff development workshop. Your group did an excellent job on the project.

Group Feedback: EDTE 283
The group selected an important topic which would be of interest to teachers and administrators. The project is designed using a ‘Train the Trainer’ delivery model. Well organized and attractive handouts included an excellent facilitator’s guide. A pre‐designed blank record sheet for each session (for participants to fill in during the SD) would be helpful and could be included with the online training materials. Suggest that the website URL be more prominently located in the handouts. The project website was easy to navigate, met accessibility requirements, and included the use of web 2.0 tools such as blogs and social networking. Overall the group delivered a solid presentation. Good job!

[ Feedback from Peers ]

The website was well organized and designed.  There was a nice balance of pictures, graphics, and text throughout the website, which made it appealing to view.  Additionally, the website provided valuable resources for both students and teachers to use.