EDAD 5030: Integrating Information & Academic Technologies into Educational Practice and Professional Life

Transcription

1 Educational Leadership Post-Master Program Course: EDAD 5030: Integrating Information & Academic Technologies into Educational Practice and Professional Life Instructor: Dr. Yiping Wan Spring, 2010 Phone: Office Location: C wany@mville.edu Course Number: EDAD 5030 Office Hours: Tuesday 2:00 3:00 PM; Thursday 1:00 0 3:00 PM or by appointments Department Chair: Dr. Kathleen Rockwood Required Texts and Resources Jerry Willis and Seung Kim. (2006). Using computers in educational and psychological research. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas. Balch, B. (2005). Preparing a professional portfolio: A school administrator s guide. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Manuals and tutorials on the specific programs and resources you will be mastering. William R. Thomas (2005). Educational Technology: Are School Administrators Ready for It? Atlanta: Southern Regional Education Board. Available: ISTE NETS for Administrators. Available: You must have access to your own personal computer as well as high speed access to the Internet. Supplemental Texts and Resources For several assignments you will need to locate and use additional resources that go well beyond the text and assigned readings listed above. Course Description An increasingly important component of the skill set for leaders in education is the ability to deploy information and educational technologies to accomplish important professional and

2 practical goals. This experience has a hands-on, how-to-do-it focus. It is not, however, a basic computer literacy or educational computing course. As an experienced educator you should already be computer literate and have common information technology and educational technology skills such as the ability to use a word processing program, a spreadsheet program, systems, and basic online search facilities. Over the semester you will add what might be called advanced general literacy skills and advanced educational technology expertise to your basic IT and ET skills. However, the primary focus of this course is on critical thinking, problem solving, and policy analysis related to technology application to teaching and learning. The secondary focus is on managing change process, and strategic planning. Some of these skills involve learning to use the IT infrastructure of the doctoral program but most are more general. Course Objectives Understands the role of current and emerging technology in education o infrastructure; budgeting; technical support; personnel; upgrades Managing change, making recommendations and decisions, and ensuring accountability o Understand data-driven decision-making and problem-solving skills and procedures; Understand comprehensive planning Demonstrates ability to analyze and react to technology issues, concepts and proposals o effective strategies for sustaining personal professional growth; procedures for creating a positive, productive learning environment for all students Possesses a big-picture vision of technology in education and schools o educational reform movement; academic standards; time allocation Uses technology to communicate efficiently with staff, parents and the community o voice mail; ; newsletter Understand effective strategies for fostering ongoing staff development and sustaining personal professional growth o staff development; processes of collaboration and cooperation Uses technology directly to collect and analyze data and other information that can improve decision-making and other management functions o student academic achievement tests; gathering of data on variables not previously gathered; access to information Understands how current and available technologies can be integrated effectively into all aspects of the teaching and learning process o application of software in each instructional area; access to research information; multimedia presentations Understands the legal and ethical issues related to technology licensing and usage o purchasing agreements; safety and security issues Learns how to manage resources, finances, and compliance o understands the management of compliance with federal, state, and local mandates Uses technology appropriately in leading and communicating about school programs and activities o efficient management of the school enterprise; effective presentation of information to staff, parents and the community; improved decision-making.

3 Source: Advanced General Professional Literacy Skills Students will learn to: Use electronic search strategies to locate appropriate information about topics of interest and use online journals as well as portal sites to find appropriate professional and scholarly resources. Use advanced word processing, brainstorming, multimedia, web design, and publishing software to create proposals, scholarly and professional papers, web sites, and multimedia presentations. Organize and safeguard qualitative and quantitative data, and analyze data using appropriate software. Class Attendance Policy Since this class is a combination of web-based and face-to-face in classroom instruction, students are expected to actively participate in both instruction formats. Students can be excused for one absence from face-to-face classroom meetings, either for professional reason (such as PTA meeting or open house) or personal reason (such as illness), and be able to pass the class without additional makeup work, provided all other requirements are met. The second absence can be made up by doing the extra home work in the case study format; if students must be absent from class for three times or more, an Incomplete or failure grade will be assigned. Advanced Educational Technology Expertise Analyze personal abilities, knowledge, and skills relative to the national standards for education leaders, develop a two-year plan of improvement to address areas of weakness, and implement the plan. Develop the expertise in contemporary uses of technology in education needed to evaluate existing school and district technology usage and to lead the development of new, innovative and meaningful plans for technology integration. Program-Specific Technology Responsibilities Students will master at least one of the major electronic resources that form a significant component of the support infrastructure of the doctoral program: Blackboard a course management and online course delivery system that is available for use by students and faculty at Manhattanville College. It is best suited to teachercentered methods of instruction. Doctoral students will master the use of Blackboard as an instructor and as a student at the intermediate level.

4 Students will explore and have some working knowledge of a number of other electronic resources that can be included either as a group project or other assignments for this course. These include: Moodle a course management and online course delivery system that is an example of freely available or Open Source software. Moodle was designed specifically to support online and mixed online/face-to-face instruction based on constructivist and student-centered methods of instruction. Doctoral students will master the use of Moodle as an instructor and as a student at the intermediate level. Sakai This program is the product of collaboration between a number of colleges and universities including Cambridge University, Stanford University, and the University of Toronto. It is a comprehensive support system for collaboration and communication that was designed specifically for use in higher education. It has many features some simple such as the calendar, announcements and assignments tools, and some more complex such as the collaborative writing tool for creating Wikis and blogs, chatrooms and threaded discussion tools, lesson builder tools for creating and publishing lessons, and a number of additional participatory communication tools. Sakai will be used extensively in the program and you will be expected to become a moderately sophisticated user. Open Source Portfolio ( Open Source Portfolio (OSP) is a suite of tools for developing professional portfolios. It is a sophisticated system with many features. As a doctoral student you will use this program to develop, maintain, edit, and disseminate your professional portfolio. OSP was originally developed at the University of Minnesota but is now managed, supported, and regularly updated by members of the Open Source Portfolio Initiative (OSPI). The doctoral program does not have a high stakes test such as a qualifying exam or comprehensive exam. Instead, you will submit your portfolio to the faculty at the end of each year and receive feedback on your progress and development in the program. OSP is thus a very important tool for all doctoral students and you will be expected to become a sophisticated user of it as well as a suite of audio and video creation and editing tools for creating components of your portfolio. Course Format About 25% of the time will be spent discussing issues related to the roles and possibilities of technology, as well as the potential problems, challenges, and criticisms of technology, in education. This aspect of the experience will include exploration of personal, professional, and institutional uses of technology, including the roles technology can play in the learning process. Students will demonstrate the command of such knowledge and skill by leading classroom discussion of required or recommended text books (usually a book chapter). About 25% of the time in class will be spent at the computer and/or library, learning to use relevant software, and get to know the role of information technology plays in teaching and learning. However, most students will find it necessary to work with and use the software outside class time as well in order to master it and develop the necessary level of competence as a new user.

5 About 25% of the time will be spent on policy analysis, change process management, technology planning, which will be reflected in group presentation (each group shall consist of 2 or 3 members, and each presentation should last about 25 to 30 minutes). A final 25% of the class time will be invested in work on either the applied projects, i.e., something in a white paper or proposal format that a school or a school system can possibly adopt and use, or some individual research on a chosen topic in a book review format. Course Expectations As noted above, there are four aspects of this course The integration of technology into education by identifying potential problems, challenges and possible solutions (25% of grade) Mastery and understanding of the relevant topics, software and tools (25% of grade) Group presentation on technology planning and policy analysis(25% of grade) Applied research on a chosen topic reflected in a book review format (25% of grade) Accommodation Policy Students needing accommodations for a documented disability should notify the instructor at the beginning of the semester. Possible Topics for Group Presentation and/or Applied Research Given what we have, how can we improve and plan for technology in our school district? What technology infrastructure should be in place to support student learning? What existing policies on technology should be revised or modified so that effective teaching and learning will be promoted? What are the latest communication tools and/or games students use or play most often, and how can we use them to enhance learning? Why? What kind of electronic resources should be explored or expanded? Why? What are areas for improvement with our current technology system in our district? How can we improve them? What kind of professional development on technology would benefit teachers the most? How to implement them? How can we develop an effective electronic portforlio? What can we learn from business sector in terms of effective use of technology? Other relevant topics could be included so long as they focus on critical-thinking, problemsolving, strategic-planning and/or policy analysis. Prior approval from the instructor is expected. Academic Collaboration Teaching rests on personal and social relationships built on trust and respect as well as a degree of comfort between students, between the instructor and individual students, and among the

6 members of the social entity that emerges across the semester the class that includes both the students and the instructor plus other educators who are involved in the work of the class. This course will involve considerable collaboration between students, in part because the nature of the course calls for it, and in part because leadership is, at its core, collaboration. Intensive and sustained collaboration often causes students to be concerned about the question of academic dishonesty. Should you hand in a report, or analysis or project with only your name on it, for example, when several other students made important contributions to it? The answer is no, you should not. Instead, you should turn your assignment in with appropriate credit given to all who contributed. That credit can come in many forms from coauthorship: Jane Smiley, Sara Paretsky, and Jack Higgins with the order of authorship indicating who contributed the most intellectually to the assignment, to coauthorship with a note that authorship order was assigned randomly, authorship is equal, to coauthorship with a note indicating what each person did: Note: Jane Smiley led the design of the survey and analyzed the data. Sara Paretsky did the major work on the review of the literature and on the discussion section of the paper. Jack Higgins set up and managed the web site, sent to potential survey participants with instructions, and took the lead in designing the methodology of the study. All three authors were heavily involved in editing and revising the manuscript and in checking the data analysis procedures. If the level of involvement does not rise to the level of authorship credit, a note at the end of the assignment that credits others for their work is appropriate: The authors wish to thank John le Carré for his insight into the relationship between the results of our study and theories of the Frankfurt School and for introducing us to the epistemology of Jürgen Habermas. In this paper we have relied heavily on the theoretical frameworks that emerged from the Frankfurt School and Habermas work. In this course, most of the projects and work can be done collaboratively. Some must be done collaboratively. While you should not be excessively concerned about academic dishonesty you will want to make sure that you give due credit to all who contributed to a completed assignment. Also, as you use the scholarly and professional literature in reports and other types of assignments, keep in mind that anything directly quoted should be enclosed with quotation marks and a citation included (using the APA format). And, if you use the organizational structure or synthesis (e.g., the three major ideologies actively trying to influence education today are empiricism, interpretivism, and critical theory) you should credit the source of that organizational structure or synthesis. If you are in doubt about any issue related to academic dishonesty please talk with the instructor or another faculty member.