Integrating Technology Into Education - Bringing It All Together
For the past six weeks, we have gone through an enormous amount
of subject matter - from creating blogs, multimedia presentations, Web 2.0
tools, and of course building an online lesson plan. Some lessons have focused
on the technical but the true nature of educational technology is quite
theoretical. It is simply applying the same tools we use to conduct everyday
life activities into the context of education. Obviously such topics have
been fragmented and you probably had a few "say what" moments but somehow there
must be an explanation on how to bring it all together. The intent of this
lecture is to explore how others have used everything from the Internet and Web
2.0 tools to basic computing capabilities to enhance learning. This lecture is
very heavily video driven (over two hours worth of content/videos this week).
The next six videos will cover a variety of topics, all of which should give you a cohesive idea on how to use what we learned in the past weeks to maximize learning in your classrooms be it a K-12 room or a college class.
With all of these videos, you must be asking - so we have all this information - how do we create a technology rich lesson plan. Well, for one, your final projects are a starting point for how to do that. You have created a blog. You have created a PowerPoint. You have created an assessment. Now the next task is to take the plunge into create a simple Website. I strongly recommend using a site like Google Docs or a Blog like Wordpress. You can even create a basic Website using Microsoft Word or Oracle Open Office. All of these are free. Your goal is to write a lesson that is fairly succinct (similar to this one) and create a lesson based on a given theme. For example, if you are a math teacher and your lesson is on Fractions. I would expect to see a few things. This is the rubric for the assignment.
A webpage introducing the lesson. (Description of lesson) (3 Points)
The lesson itself (must mix text, images, graphics etc) (7 Points)
Resource Section pointing students to resources for Websites pertaining to the topic (3 Points)
A PowerPoint presentation embedded into the Webpage or Video embedded into the Webpag)e (bonus points for original content using a platform such as SlideShare, Vimeo, YouTube etc) (4 Points
A presentation to accompany the Web based content (an original PowerPoint presentation) (3 Points)
A references section - how did you create the content. Must be in APA format (1 Point)
Reflects Strong Formatting and Solid Presentation Skills (Good layout and lesson structure) (1 Point)
Assessment - Create a short assessment to validate student knowledge (3 Points)
For some further reading, advice, and guidance, these next two sites are absolute gems. The first one gives you a strong tutorial on how to manage your way through developing an online lesson plan. The second link is a top-rated site listing all the top collaboration/Web 2.0 tools available to date that are educationally sound.
Check out this website which helps individuals learn how tointegrate technology into lesson plans. When developing your lessons, don't forgot to figure out how to make the lessons collaborative. The best site on everything Web 2.0 can be found at http://www.sacredcowdung.com/archives/2006/03/all_things_web.html. With all this information, I am confident that all of you will make learning a delightful experience for your students, and an interactive one too.
A word about your final projects.
This is a two week lecture. Your assignments are due the last day of the semester (July 29th). NO LATE ASIGNMENTS WILL BE ACCEPTED!!!! This is a group exercise so each group will need to come up with a central theme and create the content based on the rubric above.
PLEASE POST THE URLS ON BLACKBOARD
Some of you have asked - can you provide me helpful hints. With that said, I searched the Internet and found a few great sites that should help to enhance your sites, especially for those of you who are using Wordpress. Please check this Website.
I will be posting the grades for discussions on July 25th. If you have any questions why I gave you the grades I did, please ask before it is too late. The window closes the last day of the class.
I know all of you have been racing to the finish line and this class has not
been easy. Often taught in fourteen weeks in a classroom, this class is daunting
in the six week online format. I recognize that! I sincerely appreciate your
hard work and the effort put into everything you have submitted.
As a graduate student myself twice now (been in an online classroom since 2002), I find that if you are not challenged and learn how to tinker with things especially in the educational technology area - you aren't doing enough. Technology is now part of the sum game with any educational experience. The beauty of a class such as EDU-519 is getting broad exposure to educational theory, philosophy, and methods with a technology wrapper. The intent is not to teach you how to use the tools in depth (that is the part you do on your own via constructive learning). Instead, it is to bring lots of technology concepts together and help you expand the way you present instruction to your students, colleagues, and parents alike. And we accomplished that during the past six weeks! So - congratulations to all of you.
It has been a pleasure having each and every one of you in my class this summer. I only wish you the best in your education careers in the years and decades to come.
Have a great summer and thank you!