Unit 1: Getting Started - Educational Technology Foundations (2 Weeks)

Welcome to our class! Our focus this semester will be on the development of activities and tools to support learning goals for K-16 students. On this page, you'll find everything you need to complete the first tasks for the semester. Again, if you normally skim long passages, this is not the semester to do that! Please make sure to watch all videos and read all text before attempting each task. And the important reminder - have FUN as you explore the first activities!

Click here to access and complete the Student Information Sheet. This will help me learn more about you and, if necessary, redesign and adapt the upcoming course materials to better meet your needs.

Preparations:

• You'll need a computer with a webcam or a mobile device with the free Flip app in order to record. 

• Go to our first Flipgrid question: "Who am I and why am I taking EDIT 2000e?" 

• Choose "Continue with Microsoft" and use your UGA email and password to log in.   

• If you're using a mobile device, enter this code when prompted: b6c520a9

Steps to Completion:

• Post a video that introduces your name, major, your expectations, and one "uninteresting" fact about yourself (a little tweak, right? Please don't feel pressured to share something interesting—just share anything about yourself). 

• Take a few minutes to view your classmates' responses and leave welcoming comments to more than 3 students! Who knows, your sweet little message may make someone smile today.

You'll need a space to organize all of your amazing work this semester. We're going to use Google Sites to create a portfolio for you to keep all of your work. This is also how I will access your work in order to grade it. 

• IMPORTANT - you can't edit a Google Site unless you are using Google Chrome or Firefox as your browser. If you do try to create/edit a site using Safari or Internet Explorer, you'll be sent to the "classic" version of Google Sites and none of my instructions will make any sense. 

You likely already have a Google account. If not - please go to google.com and set one up (you'll need it for several things this semester). 

Steps to Completion:

• Go to http://sites.google.com/new  to create your site. 

• Name your site in the top left corner.

• Create 5 pages: About, Facilitate, Collaborate, Create, Design

• Change the header image of your Home page.
  Make your website more professional and visually appealing by decorating the main header image. Experiment with different images, fonts, and header styles. Try out various themes by using the "Themes" menu on the right. (In this sample website, I used the "Image - Select - Search" feature to find a photo of my favorite place, the New York Public Library. I changed the title's appearance by using the "Diplomat - font style, light" theme. The "Cover" header type was used to fill the screen. I added a footer with "© 2023 Hyejin Jinny Hwang | University of Georgia." This is just an example - you don't need to follow the same design!)

• Create your About page (can't wait to read yours!).
  Include a photo of yourself and a brief biography that's about 1-2 paragraphs long (this is the bare minimum for a full credit—you can be more creative if you want!). You can use the first template from the "Content Blocks" menu on the right—Click HERE to see where to find it. Most of your website pages will be blank for the time being. 

• IMPORTANT - Click the Publish button when you are finished, regardless of your optional privacy setting.
  Google Sites will save all of your work - but it won't be viewable publicly until you click the Publish button. If you'd like to see your website like others will see it, click the small arrow on the right side of the Publish button and choose "View published site". This will allow you to see what your actual website address is, too.

• Post your new portfolio address to this form.​ I need your website address to review and grade your work. Please note - your portfolio address will be similar to: https://sites.google.com/view/whateveryounamedyoursite. 

• Textbook: Gonzalez, J. (2023). Teachers Guide to Technology 2023 (7th ed.). Cult of Pedagogy.

Our textbook is actually a resource guide. We’ll use a good bit of it – but ideally, it will be something you’re able to use after this semester. The publisher has provided us with a discount on the resource guide, but it’s important that you follow the directions in order to pay the correct price of $15. Go to this link: https://teachersguidetotech.com/using-a-coupon-code/, click "and use the coupon code: 23UGAEDU to pay the reduced price of $15. If you don't receive any email after payment, log in to the website and click "My Courses and Downloads" to download the book. If you have an error when purchasing the text, please contact me immediately (hyejin.hwang@uga.edu).

It is always difficult to strike a balance between understanding technology tools and understanding the role of those tools in teaching and learning. In order to ensure a balance and to establish a good foundation in educational technology, you really need to start with a few quick reads. The list looks long, but many of these are short reads. 

Steps to Completion:

• Completing the three readings below.

• Submit this Reading Response Form. Write at least a paragraph for each question.

Reading 1: Howland, J., & Jonassen, D. (2012). Meaningful learning with technology (4th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
You're just reading the first chapter. It's an excellent overview of the role technology can play in creating meaningful learning experiences in K12 classrooms and other learning environments. This reading will be a great resource for every single writing assignment you have for this course. As a long-time educator, parent, and lifelong learner - this quote from the chapter is incredibly meaningful to me and I try to use it as a guide in all of the courses I teach:

In order for students to learn meaningfully, they must be willfully engaged in a meaningful task. In order for meaningful learning to occur, the task that students pursue should engage active, constructive, intentional, authentic, and cooperative activities. Rather than testing inert knowledge, schools should help students to learn how to recognize and solve problems, comprehend new phenomena, construct mental models of those phenomena, and, given a new situation, set goals and regulate their own learning (learn how to learn).

Reading 2: Rose, D. H., & Gravel, J. W. (2010). Universal design for learning. In P. Peterson, E. Baker & B. McGraw (Eds.), International encyclopedia of education. Oxford: Elsevier.
You'll read "Chapter 4: Universal Design for Learning" in this book. This part goes into fantastic detail about what Universal Design for Learning really means. This should be of particular interest to anyone planning to work in special education or speech-language pathology or anyone just interested in better learning design. Pay close attention to the 3 principles of UDL. Being able to describe these and identify examples of them will be really important for several activities this semester.

**Access the book using this link. You will have to create a free account as a teacher to read the chapter - but the web version has some nice accessibility features that might be useful to you. I particularly like the option to have any text that you highlight read to you. You're basically just reading all of chapter 4 - and there are videos included that you are not required to view but might help to explain UDL a bit better.

Reading 3: International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Standards for Students.
This is the set of standards I use for this course. You'll use these standards to make connections among the many tasks you'll complete this semester. This is a good one to print out for later. You can read more about ISTE here.