Ecomp 7007 Syllabus

 

MISSION

Participants will develop skills in using the tools of telecommunications to communicate and collaborate with others, access information, plan and distribute information and apply their expertise in schools, classrooms and graduate studies. Participants will learn to use telecommunications responsibly and become articulate spokespersons on issues related to educational telecommunications and the changing role and nature of information

OBJECTIVES

Students will be able to:


1. Communicate and collaborate using various telecommunications tools such as list servers, threaded discussions, weblogs, chat, instant messaging, and other appropriate tools.
2. Complete on-line research to locate, select, evaluate and acquire information using appropriate tools.
3. Adapt and integrate telecommunications experiences and create inquiry-oriented, standards-based student-centered activities.
4. Design, create, and publish a web site for education.
5. Demonstrate an awareness of web accessibility concerns and requirements.
6. Identify appropriate on-line instructional resources and tools.
7. Articulate an awareness of current and emerging telecommunications technologies and the impact on education.
8. Become conversant concerning telecommunications issues including ethics, security, privacy, copyright, acceptable use, and personal safety.

Lesley University is committed to ensuring the full participation of all students in its programs. Accordingly, if a student has a documented disability, and, as a result, needs a reasonable accommodation to attend, participate or complete course requirements, then he or she should inform the instructor at the beginning of the course. For further information about services through Lesley College for students with disabilities, please contact the following Student Affairs offices:

Manju Banerjee, Coordinator of Disability Services

(617) 349-8194 or (617) 349-8530 (message) or

Research Papers must adhere to the general rules established for APA style. Refer to The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. (4th ed ) (1994). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association

• APA FAQ's
• Web Extension to American Psychological Association Style (WEAPAS)  - Proposed standard for referencing online documents in scientific publications
• Referencing online resources

EVALUATION CRITERIA All projects will be graded on their originality, complexity, and practicality for the classroom. Emphasis should be on the effective use of telecommunications in order to enrich and enhance your curriculum. All assignments must be completed on, or prior to, their due date. Active class and online participation will be taken into account as a necessary aspect of this course..

GRADING Course assignments are to be submitted on the dates they are due. Assignments may not be resubmitted for re grading unless you are notified by the instructor that you have not earned a passing grade.

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ECOMP 7007 ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTIONS (Back to Top)

CLASS PROJECTS, ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION---15% Ongoing

Attendance is required at all class meetings. On task and timely return from breaks is expected. Active and constructive class participation both on and off line will be considered for this part of the grade. Make sure you are familiar with the Lesley Attendance Policy.

Web Site Planning ---20% Due second weekend(Back to Top)

You will work to develop a webquest (or other curriculum related web site) in an area of your choice which should be specific and relevant to your classroom curriculum or professional assignment. Between the two weekends you should gather URLs, pictures/photos to scan or written material to create your page. You will then create and publish the web site on the second weekend in class.You will use search tools to locate web pages with information about your topic. You may want to use the Web Site Project Guide and fill it out as you move along in the process of developing your web page unit. Activity l will be part of the inclass activities the first weekend. Elements 2 and 3 are considered part of your midterm project. Element 4 will be part of our inclass activity during the second weekend.

If you choose to complete a Webquest then you will need to develop a step by step Webquest following models such as those presented in the in class Webquest activity. Your Webquest should be written so that other teachers can pick up this Webquest and use it in his or her classroom.

Note: You may work on a this project with other classmates. The quality and depth of treatment of the project should reflect that more than one person worked on the project.

FIFTEEN WEB SITES ---10%  Due Friday: second weekend (Back to Top)

Independently, surf the net and find at least fifteen web sites that are of some interest to you and could be used by you or by your students. At least ten should be curriculum related and useful for you. You may want to pick a specific topic area and concentrate on that. The other five should be *fun sites*. If you do more than one topic, group the web sites under topic areas and label the areas, i.e. math, science, PE, etc. For each site, list the URL, and a brief (two to five sentence) paragraph on its content and use. Save this file as a word processing file and bring to class the second weekend. We will use the information to make a web page (Metasite) and publish it the second weekend.

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WWW ---15% Friday Second weekend (Back to Top)

Select one web site or project on the Web to investigate in depth. (This may come from one of the sites you examined for one of your other projects.) Once you've decided on the site/project send an email message to the instructor and everyone in the class with the name of the site so there will be no duplication. Prepare an in-class presentation including benefits and educational uses. Bring one copy of a word processed 1-3 page report describing your investigation.  The report should include the URL and focus on educational benefits. You will have 30-40 minutes to give an in class presentation. For your presentation prepare a hands-on activity for your classmates as well as part of the presentation. You may need to bring copies of directions or worksheets for your classmates to follow for the hands-on activity.

WEBQUEST

During the second weekend you will learn how to make web pages and will use a template to create a webquest. You will need to complete the webquest and post it to the web before the date when the final project is due.

FINAL PROJECT ---40% October 16 (Back to Top)

Final projects must be word processed. If the final project includes a web site it must be uploaded to an internet server. Projects may be sent via conventional mail or can be sent via email attachments. For mailed projects include a SASE if you would like your project returned. If sent via email comments, if requested, will be returned via email. Send attachments as Word (.doc) documents or Rich Text (.rtf) files.

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FINAL PROJECT POSSIBILITIES

- One of the following

Develop a unit plan in a content area using the world wide web and email. Include enough detail so that another teacher could pick up this unit and use it in his or her classroom. This needs to be more than a "key pal" project.

Develop a presentation and/or grant proposal for your school committee, school administrators, principals or building faculty to support telecommunications including handouts and other materials appropriate to the presentation. Make sure that the proposal is grounded in curriculum, i.e. How is it going to enhance and enrich the curriculum, what subjects, how etc. This needs to be more than a "key pal" project.

Write an extensive research paper. Read at least 8 articles (in addition to articles used in this course) on a specific topic related to telecommunications  Synthesize, analyze, compare and contrast this information. The paper should be written using APA style. Examples of topic areas: a) modems or some other technical aspect of telecommunications b) a review and analysis of different web-related software packages, c) uses of telecommunications in a specific subject d) uses of telecommunications for a specific group of students such as special needs, gifted and talented etc. All sources must be cited.

Write an article about how you, your school or district use telecommunications.  Submit the article to a journal or magazine such as, Learning and Leading with Technology.   Guidelines for submission are found on the ISTE web site http://iste.org/L&L/index.html

Develop a plan for using telecommunications among teachers and/or administrators in your school district. Details such as, instruction on use of software and a telecommunications system(s) should be included. The most important aspect of this project is how you will actually use the system and environment so that people have ownership and the plan can be implemented. You should also devise a means to evaluate the success of the project after a pre-determined time span. This project should emphasize curriculum.

Plan and implement a telecommunication project with someone in this class or another class near or far. Use email to plan your project. Develop a step by step plan, so that other teachers could pick up this project and use it in his or her classroom. Include methods to evaluate the effectiveness of your project and include ways to follow up. Your submission must include the plan (in lesson plan form), copies of the emails you exchanged with your colleague, and a writeup of the outcomes of the project. This writeup should include your impressions of the effectiveness of the project, how "smooth" it went, problems, both expected and unexpected and any other items that would allow the reader to understand how the project unfolded.

Create and upload a web site which includes appropriate graphics, internal and external links and paper. The web site content needs to be related to education and developed to make a meaningful contribution to the WWW. As part of this project you will need to examine what other educational organizations have placed on the WWW that are similar to your project (if there are any). You will need to assess the positive and negative aspects of the web sites they have designed and the content they have included. Based on your assessment you should strive to emulate the positive elements of other similar Web sites. Your site should be, in part, a reflection of your assessment of other WWW sites. The site needs to be thoughtful, well planned and cover enough information for it to be worthwhile for you or someone else to want to use your site.  The paper should include a rationale for development of the site, the process you went through, what you learned and recommendations for others regarding web site development. If the web site is not educationally oriented, then you will need to discuss this with your instructor. All projects must be done for this class, you may add on to or enhance a site you have already started, but material created prior to this class will not be considered for evaluation purposes. You must identify what you worked on for this class. The final project may be in the form of a Webquest but must be different than the one that was worked on in class the second weekend.

Design an alternative project of your own choice and submit it for approval by the instructor.

Note: You may work on a final project with other classmates. The quality and depth of treatment of the project should reflect that more than one person worked on the project. One Webquest would NOT be sufficient for two people working together.

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  READINGS: (Back to Top)
Where you will find the readings:

Shea, V. (1998). The Core Rules of Netiquette (excerpts from her book, Netiquette) Retrieved March 28, 1998
from the World Wide Web:

World Wide Web Issues - What's protected and what you can use from the Web. The Copyright Website.
(Click on Edge: Internet and Software. Click on World Wide Web Issues)

LESLEY COLLEGE- SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
ATTENDANCE POLICY - GRADUATE PROGRAM

1. The academic integrity of our programs and our institutional accreditation depend on students attending all scheduled class meetings.

2. Students should discuss with faculty, in advance, any portion of a class meeting they cannot attend.

3. Faculty reserve the right to set specific attendance requirements for their course. This applies to all models of delivery including Institutes, Residencies, Workshops, etc. The faculty establish expectations regarding emergency and "milestone" circumstances that may necessitate student absence from class as part of their syllabus. Absence from class may have an adverse effect on a student's grade.

In setting these requirements faculty will be guided by the following standards:

Weekend Model:

• missing up to the equivalent of one full day over the two weekends:
• students are responsible for contacting the professor to discuss the nature of the emergency and "milestone" circumstance, whether the course attendance expectations will permit make-up work and/or whether there may be an adverse effect on the final grade.

Missing more than the equivalent of one full day over the two weekends will result in a grade of technical fail (TF) on the student's transcript. The class needs to be retaken and tuition repaid.

Serious family emergency and significant "milestone" circumstances may warrant exception to these requirements and will be considered on a case-by-case basis in consultation with the Program Director.

4. The faculty have full discretion regarding make-up expectations. Make up of assignments missed including those completed in and out of class, as well as a specific course content (i.e. videos, reflection, discussion, readings, etc.), may be required.

School of Education Approved November 3, 1998

Time Extensions and Incomplete Grades:

Extensions of time require instructor approval and must be requested, in writing, before the one month project period has expired. Incomplete grades will be recorded in instances where the time has been extended or when final projects are judged to be incomplete. Those students that need to take an incomplete, unless there are extenuating circumstances, must understand that they are working for a B as their highest possible makeup grade.

Incompletes must be submitted with adequate time for grading so that grades may be recorded by April 1st for Fall semester and/or January courses. Spring and summer course grades must be submitted by December 1st. Any extension of the Incomplete make-up time period policy requires the Registrar’s approval of a student’s petition initiated prior to the normal expiration date.

All Incompletes not made up before the deadline remain on the student’s transcript as an “INC” grade and the course must be repeated by the student (quite possibly involving attending the course on campus or travel to some distant site).