LESLEY UNIVERSITY 

GENERAL INFORMATION

MEETING TIMES 

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MISSION: Participants will develop skills in using the tools of telecommunications to communicate and collaborate with others, access information, planning and distributing 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

2. To use on-line research tools to locate, select, evaluate and acquire information. 

3. Adapt and incorporate personal telecom experiences to sound educational activities for students.
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4. Introduce web page design and publication for education and learning, including accessibility issues. Prepare and deliver documents for electronic publication via webquests, web pages, file attachments, and commercially provided electronic courses.

5. To be exposed to components needed for implementing use of telecommunications in the schools. 

6. To examine a variety of commercial, public and private telecommunications systems and study how each type of system can be used to enhance student communication and problem solving skills. 

7. To become familiar with other technologies that may be used to complement telecommunications and understand the potential impact and changes that these technologies may create in delivery of education.

8. To articulate issues concerning ethics, security, privacy, copyright, acceptable use and personal safety. 

9. Understand the different modes of connection to the Internet (DSL, cable, satellite).

Shaw, Trevor. (2003) An Easy Route to a Classroom Web Presence. Multimedia Schools. 10(5) Retrieved July 11, 2006 from the World Wide Web:  http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/oct03/shaw.shtml

Will Richardson. Blogging and RSS — The "What's It?" and "How To" of Powerful New Web Tools for Educators. Multimedia Schools. 11(1) Retrieved July 11, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/jan04/richardson.shtml

Burkhart, Linda J. Technology Integration . Retrieved July 11, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://www.lburkhart.com/   [Read either the "Using the Internet in Elementary Schools,  "Using the Internet in Middle Schools, " or "Special Needs," parts, depending upon your grade level.]

Thombs, Margaret M.(2003) " Accessible Web Pages: Advice for Educators " Syllabus: Technology for Higher Education.  Retrieved July 11, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://www.syllabus.com/article.asp?id=7095

Yoder, M.  (1999). The Student WebQuest  Retrieved July 11, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://www.lesley.edu/faculty/myoder/webquest.pdf

Bakalor, Mark. Web Graphics Basics . Retrieved July 11, 2006 from the World Wide Web:  http://www.efuse.com/Design/web_graphics_basics.html

Shea, Virginia “The Core Rules of Netiquette” (excerpts from her book, Netiquette) Retrieved July 11, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html
 

RECOMMENDED READING

Davidson, Hall. (1999) The Educators' Lean and Mean No Fat Guide to Fair Use. Technology & Learning 20(2). Available online in  Expanded Academic ASAP   through the Lesley College Library.

Castro, Elizabeth. HTML for the World Wide Web, (5th ed.). Berkeley, CA: Peachpit Press. 2003. 

Lemay, L. (1997) Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML 4 in a Week (4th ed.). Indianapolis, 
IN: SAMS Publishing. (later edition if one has been published) 
 (There are many other very adequate introductions to HTML which could substitute for the above two books) 

Hock, Randolph. The Extreme Searcher's Internet Handbook. Medford, NJ. CyberAge Books. 2004. 

Internet Literacy Consultants,  “ ILC Glossary of Internet Terms ” 1994-97 Retrieved July 11, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://www.matisse.net/files/glossary.html

W3Schools. "HTML Tutorial" Retrieved July 11, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://www.w3schools.com/html

Multimedia Schools: The Media and Technology Specialists’ Guide to Electronic Tools and Resources for K-12 Education Take a look at the link to past issues.  Retrieved July 11, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://www.mmischools.com/

"Yale C/AIM Web Style Guide " Retrieved July 11, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://www.webstyleguide.com/

Zakon Robert H., “Hobbes' Internet Timeline ” Retrieved July 11, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/

WebQuest Resources

Yoder, M.  (1999). The Student WebQuest.  Retrieved July 11, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://www.lesley.edu/faculty/myoder/webquest.pdf

Dodge, B.  (2001, May). Five Rules for Writing a Great WebQuest. Learning and Leading with Technology, 28(8), 6-9, 58. Retrieved July 11, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://www.webquest.futuro.usp.br/artigos/textos_outros-bernie1.html

Dodge, Bernie. The Web Quest Page.    Retrieved July 11, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://webquest.sdsu.edu/.  This is the "original" by Bernie Dodge and it includes authoritative advice. Be sure to look at the page on Training Materials.

March, Tom. Webquests & More. Retrieved July 11, 2006 from the World Wide Web.http://www.tommarch.com/learning/

Watson, Kenneth Lee. Web Quests in the Middle School Curriculum: Promoting Technological Literacy in the Classroom. Retrieved July 11, 2006 from the World Wide Web: http://www.ncsu.edu/meridian/jul99/downloads/webquest.pdf   A well-written article from an online journal. 

ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION:

Students are expected to participate fully in classroom discussions and projects/activities, including discussion of the required readings. 

In line with the objectives of the course, "participation" also includes utilizing email and Blackboard (through myLesley) as an integral part of the course, including sending and receiving messages to and from fellow students and the instructor. Students are expected to check your email frequently. 

SCHEDULE   (Subject to change)

FIRST WEEKEND

    Friday

     Saturday-

    Sunday

SECOND WEEKEND

     Friday,

     Saturday,

     Sunday -

ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING

All work submitted is expected to adhere to standard rules of grammar, spelling, etc.  If you do a research paper as your final project, it should 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. (see online citation above). 

Assignments involving the creation of Web pages must be done using a Web page editor program (HTML editor) such as Dreamweaver. Pages done using a word processing program (MS Word,  MS Publisher, etc.) will not be acceptable.

Sadly, experience in teaching this course makes it necessary to remind students that plagiarism will have an extremely detrimental effect on one's grade. 

EVALUATION CRITERIA

Course assignments are to be submitted on or before the dates they are due. Assignments may not be resubmitted for grading. 

The grading scale used will be that which is used by many or most of the Lesley faculty: 

 A+  98-99 (Officially, only the A is recorded)
 A   95-97
 A-  93-94
 B+  91-92
 B   88-90
 B-  86-87
 C   78-85

ADVANCED STUDENTS

ECOMP 7007 ASSIGNMENT  DESCRIPTIONS

1. Web Resources Page (Metasite)        20%

Example (Please use this only as an example of required elements. Apply some originality to the design, making yours look at least a little different than the example.) 
 

2. WWW  Presentation   OR   Lesson Plan   OR   Discussion Group     15%

WWW PRESENTATION

• Select a specific Website to investigate in detail. 
• Once you've decided what to present, post a message on the Blackboard discussion group ("List of Student's Choices for Assignment 2") (on myLesley) so there will be no duplication.  (The first person to post a particular site gets it.)
• Prepare to give an informal in-class presentation describing the site and its benefits and educational uses.  For the in-class presentation, just show and comment on the site. (Do not do a PowerPoint presentation about the site.) You will have no more than 10 minutes to give the in-class presentation. 
• Turn in a word-processed 2-3 page report describing the site and including the description, benefits and educational uses. Be sure to include the URL. 


OR

LESSON PLAN

Develop an activity, or series of activities, that makes substantial use of telecommunications. The lesson should be specific and relevant to your classroom curriculum. Develop a step-by-step plan, with adequate detail for another teacher to be able to pick up this lesson plan and easily make use of it in his or her classroom. All elements of a typical lesson plan (objective(s), resources required, time frame, procedure, etc.) should be included.  (Do not use a "fill-in-the-blanks" lesson plan form of the type used in some school districts.) Turn in one copy of the lesson plan (2-3 pages). You will be asked to describe your lesson plan to the class (ca. 5 minutes.) 

OR

DISCUSSION GROUP PARTICIPATION

 Join an online discussion group (newsgroup, listserver, discussion group, forum), other than the class BlackBoard discussion groups, and read it regularly. Join in on the conversation. Once you've decided what to present, post a message on the Blackboard discussion group on myLesley  ("List of Students' Choices for Assignment 2") so there will be no duplication. Write a 2 to 3 page report on what you discovered reflecting both on the content and the process and include two examples of your contributions to the group. Bring a copy of the report to class for the instructor. You will be asked present this information to the class. 

3. Final Project Proposal 

4. WebQuest       20%

5. Final Project          30%

FINAL PROJECT POSSIBILITIES

One of the following: 

-  Develop a unit plan that uses telecommunications as an integral part of the unit.  Include enough detail so that another teacher could pick up this unit and use it in his or her classroom. Include all elements that might be expected in a good unit plan, including unit and lesson objectives, time frame, fairly detailed outlines for each  individual lesson, resources required, etc. 

-  Develop a presentation and/or grant proposal for the school committee, school administrators, principals, building faculty, or funding organization to support telecommunications. Include handouts and other materials appropriate to the presentation.  Make sure that the proposal is grounded in curriculum, i.e.,  How it is going to enhance and enrich the curriculum, what subjects, how it will be done, etc. 

-  Write an "extensive" research paper.  Read at least 8 articles 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)  some technical aspect of telecommunications b) a review and analysis of different telecommunications-related software packages, c) uses of telecommunications in a specific subject, uses of telecommunications for a specific group of students such as special needs, gifted and talented, etc. Papers must be 15 or more pages in length. All sources must be cited! 

-  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 structures 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(s).  This project should emphasize curriculum. 

-  Plan and implement a telecommunication project with someone in this class or another class near or far.  Use a message board to plan your project.  Develop a step by step plan, so that other teachers could pick up this unit and use it in his or her classroom.  Include methods to evaluate the effectiveness of your project and include ways to follow up. 

 - Web Site: Design, Creation and Written Description (Paper)  - Design must include at least five of the following: graphics, internal links ("targets" or "named anchors"), external links, mailto link, table, list, audio or video, JavaScript.  The site must consist of at least 5 complete Web pages with significant content and must be "published" on the Web in complete form by the due date. (Your "site" can be part of a larger site, for example the "Fourth Grade" section of your school's site.)   The web site content needs to be related to education and developed to make a useful contribution to the WWW.  As part of this project you will need to examine similar sites on the Web.  You will need to assess the positive and negative aspects of those sites and the content they have included.  Based on your assessment you should strive to emulate the positive elements of other Web sites.  The pages need to be thoughtful, well planned and cover enough information for it to be worthwhile for someone to want to access your site.  The accompanying reflections/description paper must be at least four content pages, double spaced, 12 pt. font. The paper should include your rationale for development of the site, the process you went through, comments on your examination of other sites, the trials and tribulations you encountered, and recommendations for others regarding web site development.  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. (The metasite created in Assignment 1 and your WebQuest can be included if relevant, but the overall web site must be substantially more than the metasite or WebQuest and not be just an enhancement of those.) 

-  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 strongly reflect that more than one person worked on the project, i.e. for a two-person project, reflect twice the work of an individual project. 

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Time Extensions and Incomplete Grades:

Extensions of time require instructor approval and must be requested, in writing, at least two days before the 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 who need to take an incomplete, unless there are very extenuating circumstances, must understand that they are working for a B as their highest possible 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 .
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Lesley College 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 in the Student Affairs Office:
 Manju Banerjee, Coordinator of Disability Services, at (617) 349-8194 or (617) 349-8530 (message), or e-mail: banerjee@mail.lesley.edu