Every assignment is to include a list of references
In each assignment, I am looking for evidence of thoughtful engagement and reflection on course readings, lectures, workshops and discussions. I invite you to carefully consult the assignment descriptions and associated assessment rubrics that I have developed to guide your work and to support your understanding of the expectations of each assignment.
Video Games
We will be considering the pedagogic potential of video games. Of course to do this, we need to learn to play a new video game. In addition, this unit invites you to research the availability, quality and purpose of video games and simulations in your content area and/or that are developmentally appropriate for young children. Follow this link for further information and resources.
WebLog Exploration
To demonstrate your preparation for class and your engagement with course events, including assigned readings, videos, in-class learning experiences, invited guests, and so forth, you are required to produce and develop a weblog (on-line journal). Unless otherwise noted, a blog post is due every Friday for the first twelve weeks of the semester. Follow this link for further information and resources.
Digital Storytelling
Composition and literacy are changing as the Internet becomes a more ubiquitous and central part of our literate lives. It is not enough to use digital media to teach print literacy. Indeed, the significance of print literacy is not decreasing; it is ever more important as literacy expands and becomes multimodal. We are not witnessing a replacement of one mode of literacy for another but rather a multiplication of the media. To be literate in the 21st century is to master multimodal communications. Follow this link for further information and resources.
Distributed Cognition
How are a student’s capacities to learn augmented by the educational technologies s/he’s working with? Alternatively how are a teacher’s capacities to teach augmented by the educational technologies s/he’s working with? What does/can it mean that cognition is distributed between and among students and the technologies they learn with or teachers and the technologies that augment their classroom practices? Follow this link for further information and resources.
TPACK as Design
Design a technologically enhanced learning experience (TELE) based on your emergent technological, pedagogical content knowledge of the cooperating classroom, students and, available technologies.
Introduce the learning event or experience, lesson or unit. Consider Lee Shulman’s (1986) descriptions of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK). Reflect on how Mishra and Koehler (2006) are building on Shulman’s PCK in their explorations of TPACK and good teaching with technology. Follow this link for further information and resources.
Educational Technology in the World | David 