Assignments: Fall 2005

 

Click on number to read assignment

Students must submit all assignments or their final grade will reflect an Incomplete. Also, the grade points associated with each assignment are the maximum grade points awarded; fewer grades points will be awarded if instructions were not followed or the quality of the assignment was not, in the instructor's view, worth all grade points.

 

No.

Assignment

Grade Points / 100

1

Presentation of Topic In Education

15

2

E-mail to Instructor

0

3

Course-Info Orientation, Update Personal Information, Post to Discussion Board

Read Old Story New Story for Class 2

5

4

Multimedia Assignment (Part of Final Project)

0

5

Home Page Draft - Upload to Student Web Server

5

6

Response Journal of Readings and Discussion

15

7

Web Site Draft Uploaded (All pages)

5

8

Power Point Presentation

5

9

Graphic Organizers or Visual Aids

5

10

Spreadsheet (in-class assignment)

5

11

Database (in-class assignment)

0

12

Paper: Evaluations of two children's websites: one good; one bad (N/A this session)

0

13

N/A

0

14

Final Project, Self-evaluation and Presentation

30

Attendance & Participation

10

TOTAL

100

Final Grade

Final Grades by University Policy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#1

Presentation

Assigned: Two students work together in partners. Students are responsible for signing up for a class to present.
Due: Varies
Value: 15 Grade Points
 

Students will present a topic in educational technology and lead a brief discussion on the article or current event in the field. You need to locate an article which you feel would be interesting to the class, and one that lends itself to a group discussion. In order for the class to be prepared for your presentation, you will need to provide copies of the article at least one class in advance of your scheduled presentation. Paper copies are required. Scholarly articles of five or more pages are required. You should assume that all students have read the article that is assigned and design your discussion to promote maximum student engagement. The instructional design challenge is to promote higher-order thinking and meaningful discussion. As you design this task for the class, consider ways you can structure the discussion to involve all of the learners. For example, you may want to develop some open-ended questions to pose for small groups to discuss and report out on. Your article may lend itself to a debate which you can structure for the class, or you may simply choose to use questioning techniques which draw out responses. We want to you to avoid a lecture-oriented summary of the text where learners are passive. Design a discussion that makes us all active participants.

 

Begin with a brief summary using PowerPoint if you wish, then lead the discussion and activity. Plan for 20-25 minutes. If you don't use PowerPoint, prepare a handout that summarized the article and the task you have developed. Note: if you use PowerPoint in place of a handout, it does not meet the PowerPoint assignment; you must do a separate one for that.

 

It is so important for everyone to read the articles before the presentation. Often the presentation and discussion will only be successful if everyone has read the article.

 

The goal is for you to assume the role of the instructor and apply the skills you've learned in your training and will be learning in this course. We'll ask the class to process your design and offer feedback so others will benefit from the critique. Don't be concerned, reflecting on an instructional task is an important principle of good design! It will be done in a safe environment.

 

EXAMPLES OF TOPICS ON WHICH YOU CAN FIND ARTICLES

 

  
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#2

E-mail to Instructor & Attach a Digital Photo

Assigned: Class 1
Due: Class 2
Value: 0 Grade Point

Please make sure you establish your e-mail address during the first week of the course. You may use your University address, a web-based e-mail service, or your own provider if you have one. Confirm your e-mail by posting it to the Blackboard site (student tools) and send e-mail to your instructor.

If you have not been used to checking e-mail frequently, you are strongly encouraged to do so for this course because the instructor will send you information from time to time.

Also, please e-mail a digital photo of yourself as an attached file. If you are not familiar with how to do this, e-mail the instructor.

 

 

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#3

Course-Info Orientation, Update Personal Information, Post to Discussion Board, Download and/or Install Mozilla

Assigned: Class 1
Due: Class 2
Value: 5 points
 

Please spend some time exploring the features of the Blackboard Web Site for this course so you become familiar with it. If you cannot log-in, contact University Computing for assistance.

Customize your personal information in the Student Tools section so it is updated. Then enter the Discussion Board area and read the instructions for making a posting. Discussion boards are a type of electronic bulletin board where participants "post" messages and read the postings of others. You should learn how to use a discussion board because they are popular ways for teachers to collaborate on a wide variety of issues. Please make a detailed entry and respond to four other students.
  
You will be using Mozilla, an Internet browser and web design program. If so, that can be downloaded from Mozilla.org. Also, if you are using the Internet at home, you should download and install multimedia plug-in software for your web browser. You will need:
 

Instructions for installing are on the web sites. Remember, if you are on a slow connection, you may be frustrated with multimedia files and may want to use the computer lab.

Please also read the article "Old Story New Story."
 

 

 

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#4

Internet Multimedia Resource List.

 
Please review the instructions for this assignment in the Final Project section of our Course Website.

 

 
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#5

Upload Your Home Page

Assigned: Class 2
Due: Class 4
Value: 5 Grade Points
 
You will be designing your Home Page for publication on the Internet. After the in-class workshop, please work on your design. Add links and graphics, then upload your Home Page which will be in electronic format using HTML (the "language" of the Internet). For many of you this may be your very first page on the Internet. This assignment is the very beginning of building your Final Project- a comprehensive web site. This assignment must be done by the deadline.

  

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#6

Response Journal of Readings

Assigned: Class 2-11
Due: Class 11

Value: 15 Grade Points

Your classmates will provide you with scholarly articles to read as part of their presentation. Please reflect on the article and the discussion in a Response Journal.

The Response Journal is one assessment tool your instructor has selected this term. It has several goals; first the journal is an assessment of your ability and effort to communicate in writing. Toward that end, there are high expectations for attention to standard conventions of writing and thoughtful content.

Secondly, the Journal demonstrates your understanding of concepts and theories, and your critical thinking through written reflection. When you are teaching you will surely ask your students to write in all areas of the curriculum because reflecting on reading and learning tasks through writing is a powerful assessment tool. Journals are not simply summaries, they are reflections, opinions, and critical thinking based on the article and the discussion.

Finally, your Journal is to be word processed and electronically formatted in a visually-pleasing, highly-readable manner. This will further enhance your skills in electronic publishing, a major outcome of this course. We are living in a digital world and the business of education will rely more and more on this format and on professional visual design. Excellent spelling, punctuation, and formatting are expected.

You are encouraged to spend time after each class adding entries to your Journal. Begin with listing the article's title and author, the source, and a brief overview of the topic. The bulk of your entry is a critical reflection of the issue presented as well as the discussion held in class.

There are high expectations for the quality of your entries. This Journal is for your instructor's assessment, but it's also a tool for you to reinforce what you are learning. Full value of 15 grade points, however, is given for a Journal which reflects entries of high quality on the content stated above.

You will have reflections for all articles presented (at least 8 entries). In the event we do not have 8 presentations, you will find your own scholarly article(s) to resopnd to. I have many in the "Readings" sections of our web site. Please also include a final reflection about your performance in the course (see model).

Here is a sample Journal entry which is considered an exemplar. Model Journal

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#7

Web Site (draft)

Assigned: Class 5
Due: Class 8

Value: 5 Grade Points

The next step in developing your Final Project is to begin the Web Site design. A web site includes several pages which are linked together. Following the workshops on Web Page Design you will create a draft of your full web site. The pages will include text, images and links. The purpose of this assignment is for you to practice the tools for creating web pages so you may then apply those as you develop your Final Project. You are required to upload the basic structure of your site including the Home Page and four subpages. These must be linked to each other. You do not have to have much content on the pages yet, just the structure. This assignment must be done by the deadline.

The site will include:

  • The Home Page you designed which links the subpages listed below
  • A subpage for your personal resources (such as your favorite search engines, games or music sites).
  • A subpage of teacher resources on the Internet
  • A subpage of children's sites
  • A subpage for your multimedia sites
  • A subpage or subpages(s) for the Online Lesson
 

You aren't limited to just these subpages, but that's all that are expected for this draft. As stated, this is the beginning of a comprehensive web site you will have as a final product of this course. I think you will enjoy the challenge of applying graphic design and web page design skills, and because you will be required to upload this to the USM Server, it will be published on the Internet for all to see! For more details on the final project, see the link to FINAL PROJECT on our Course Resource Site.

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#8

Power Point Presentation Document

Assigned: Class 5
Due: Class 6

Value: 5 Points

 

Please use the skills you've learned during the Power Point workshops to create a basic presentation. You may choose to use the Wizard or create a presentation from scratch. Your presentation topic is up to you, but it has to be a complete presentation. It can be personal or professional.

 
PowerPoint is a very useful tool for supplementing a rich presentation but only if it is designed well. You must include at least 10 slides and include appropriate graphics and animations on each slide. Try to apply the principles of visual literacy and graphic design we discussed earlier in the course too. You are challenged to use more advanced features by exploring the menu options and toolbar. Please save your work on your disk to share in class AND print your slides to submit to your instructor. Please print in 6-to-a-page format to conserve ink and paper. This can be done through the Page Setup or Print menus on most printers.
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#9

Graphic Organizers or Visual Aids

Assigned: Class 6
Due: Class 7
Value: 5 Grade Points

 

Following the workshops on graphic design and desktop publishing, develop a set of visual aids or graphic organizers to use with a class of students to help you teach a particular concept. This assignments asks you to demonstrate your basic skills using desktop publishing software to create visuals. You may choose to produce a poster by assembling pages or using poster board to paste your work, or create a five page set of graphic organizers, forms or task sheets for students. Please submit a paper copy for your instructors to evaluate.

 
Some students may have experience with software which allows you to create visuals. You are welcome to use that software and please indicate which application (program) you used. We will be using Publisher, Appleworks and possibly others.
 
As you design your products, remember to attend to the elements of visual design we've discussed, and remember; your product would be used to supplement instruction so it should be heavy on images and light on text.
 

 

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#10

Develop a Spreadsheet Product

Assigned: Class 7
Due: Class 8
Value: 5 Grade Points
 

 

Spreadsheets are powerful mathematical and organizational tools and can be integrated in math curriculum at all levels, or used as a teacher management tool. We will demonstrate the basics of creating a spreadsheet in our workshop and then ask you to practice a bit by creating one product using Appleworks spreadsheet or Excel (or another one you may be familiar with). There are two options:
 
Option #1: Prepare a "grade book" by setting up your spreadsheet with 15 students who have taken five objective assessments each worth 10 points.
 
Be sure you have done the following:
  • Label your columns (Student, Assessment 1, 2 and so on)
  • Record 15 students with 5 scores each (ex: Stebbins, Barbara: 9, 8, 10, 7, 6)
  • Include a header with the class name, date, and your name
  • Label the row under the last student name "Average"
  • Calculate the average grade for each assessment
  • Calculate an average score for each student (label the column "Midterm scores")
  • Create a bar graph showing the distribution of midterm scores
  • The Bar graph should include title, labels for x & y axis, student names
  • Change page set up to Landscape
  • Print your spreadsheet and bar graph on one sheet

Option #2: Create a spreadsheet for weather data (high and low daily temperatures for the month of February)

Be sure you have done the following:

  • Include header (class name, date, your name)
  • Label your columns
  • Make up high and low temperatures for each day of October
  • Calculate the average high and low temperature for the month
  • Create a bar graph showing the high and low temperatures for the first seven days of October.
  • The Bar graph should include title, labels for x & y axis, days
  • Change page set up to Landscape
  • Print your spreadsheet and bar graph on one page
 

Alternative products will be considered if you have other proposed uses of a spreadsheet. Please e-mail your instructor if you'd like to propose an alternative. You are also encouraged to use the techniques presented in the workshop on Integrated Software Applications to includes images or objects in your products. Print your products and hand in.

 

 

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#11

Develop a Database Product

N/A for this session, in-class assignment
 

 

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#12

Paper: Evaluations of two children's websites: one good; one bad

 NO APPLICABLE FOR THIS TERM

 

Assigned: Class 9
Due: Class 11
Value: 10 Grade Points
Please browse several educational web sites for children and select two to evaluate: one which you find exceptional and one which you find poorly designed. Try to select sites which children may use for a specific learning task rather than those which are just a collection of sites. Using the evaluation criteria from our resource site, write a review of both sites you selected. Include the URL in your document. We must emphasize that your reviews must demonstrate that you used the criteria in the web sites. They are located in the Course Resource Site. This is a narrative evaluation and should be a comprehensive review of at least 500 words in length using APA style.
 

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 #13

 N/A for this session

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 #14

Final Project. Self-evaluation. Peer evaluations

Value: 30 points

Refer to the Final Project Link on our Course Resource Site for Final Project instructions. If you would like to view samples of previous class projects, you will find links to those on that page.

Self-evaluations

When you are teaching you will ask your students to evaluate their own projects using criteria you established in the beginning. Your instructor has designed a self-evaluation for you so you can go through that same process. You will find that this particular tool uses a weighted scoring system we want you to see, so please make sure you complete that portion of it.

Please submit the self-evaluation at the time you present your project. The Final Project is considered incomplete without this self-evaluation.

Peer evaluations

Peer evaluations are powerful tools to use in the classroom if done constructively and in a safe environment. We may be asking all students to evaluate their peers' projects using a tool we will provide.

 

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Grade Points for EDU 300:

 

100-95 : A

94-90 : A-

89-87 : B+

86-85 : B

84-82 : B-

81-79 : C+

78-75 : C

74-72 : C-

71-68 : D

68-0 : F

 

Note: The instructor uses this point-value system as a guide.

 

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UNIVERSITY GRADING POLICY

 

Grades at the University of Southern Maine are given in terms of letters, with the option of a plus or minus designation, representing levels of achievement. The basis for determining a grade is the relative extent to which the student has achieved the objectives of the course. Note: a grade of A+ is not valid.

 

A High honors

 

B Honors

 

C Satisfactory, successful, and respectable meeting of the course objectives.

 

D Low level work, below the average required for graduation for an undergraduate and a failing grade for a graduate student.

 

F Failure to meet the course objectives.

 

H Honors in pass-fail course.

 

P Pass: Given only for courses open to the pass-fall option.

 

I Incomplete: A temporary grade given when the student because of extraordinary circumstances has failed to complete course requirements. Incomplete grades must be resolved by the end of the next semester; the Registrar will notify faculty members involved and their Department Chair or the Office of Extended Academic Programs, if appropriate, of students who have carried unresolved incompletes on their transcripts for one semester. Under special circumstances, the instructor may request that the Dean or Director extend the time limit for a specific time period.

 

INC Permanent incomplete: When a temporary incomplete grade is not resolved to a normal letter grade, a permanent incomplete may be assigned in extraordinary circumstances, as recommended by the instructor and approved by the Dean or Director. In the circumstance in which an instructor is no longer available, the Dean or Director may assign this grade.

 

MG Missing grades: Occasionally, faculty assign students invalid grades for a course or fail to submit a grade for a particular student in a course. In these cases, the Registrar's Office will note this by designating a Missing Grade, MG, instead of a grade for the course. This situation must be resolved in the same manner as incompletes.

 

W Withdrawal after the first week through the eighth week of a semester. If a student has not officially withdrawn by the end of the eighth week of a course, one of the regular grades, normally F, will be assigned. The W notation may be obtained after the eighth week under unusual circumstances as recommended by the instructor and approved by the Dean or Director.

 

Y Satisfactory progress after one semester of a two-semester course with grade and credits to be given upon completion of a second semester.

 

L Stopped attending. The grade of L may be assigned to students who stopped attending a course without officially dropping the course. The grade of L will be computed as an F for the purposes of the student's grade point average.