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 few tasks for the semester. Information will be in text and video format. Please make sure to watch all videos and read all text before attempting each task. If you normally skim long passages of text (I'm always guilty of this), this is not the semester to do that. Should you have questions along the way simply email me at gbthomas@uga.edu
Two tips that will help you:
Make a checklist of everything that needs to be completed before you get started.
You have one week to complete all of these tasks. There are readings, several videos to watch, and a bit of writing. If you wait until the last minute - all the tasks run together and get pretty complicated.
This module lays the foundation for developing instructional activities that are directly applicable in real classroom settings. The concepts and tools introduced here will support your ability to create meaningful, student-centered learning experiences that align with real-world educational goals.
UNIT 1 TASKS ARE DUE MONDAY, JANUARY 19TH AT THE END OF THE DAY
(but that's a holiday so I'm happy to take Unit 1 by the end of the day on Tuesday, January 20th)
A not-quite-short-enough video overview of our course. You may want to watch it a 1.5x speed. Also, there's absolutely no reason the thumbnail for this video should be so terrible. But there it is.
Go to our class Padlet. Click the + button on the bottom right of the Padlet screen to create your own post - you'll see a place to add a quick video to say hello and help us to pronounce your name correctly. You'll also see some required (and some optional) questions to answer.
Take a few minutes to view your classmates' responses using the same link. Please note - Padlet provides closed captioning for videos. Just click the gear symbol on any video and turn on captions. It's pretty accurate - but please let me know if there is a particular video that needs "human" transcription.
Click here to access and complete the Student Information Sheet. Please make sure to let me know if your contact information changes at any time during the semester.
Grade value: 5% of total grade
You'll need a space to organize all of your work. 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 all of your work in order to grade it.
**Important note - you can't edit a Google Site unless you are using Google Chrome or Firefox as your browser. But honestly, if you're not using one of these two browsers already - it's time for an upgrade (your life will be better for it, I promise). If you do try to create/edit a site using Safari or 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). Once you're set up with a Google account, go to http://sites.google.com/new to create your site. Unfortunately, using your UGA email does not provide the same access to this particular Google tool so it works much better if you use your personal account.
**Important note - if you like to tinker with technology to figure it out, the instructions that follow should be sufficient for you to complete this task. If you prefer a tutorial, click here for an excellent overview on how to get started with Google Sites (then follow the instructions below).
Once you've named your site, you'll want to create 5 pages: About, Facilitate, Collaborate, Create, Design Project
Most of your pages will be blank for the time being. On your About page, include a photo of yourself and a brief biography that's about 2-3 paragraphs long. You can see an example of what this might look like here. (Make sure to check out the About page - it has a really cute dog on it.)
Click the Publish button when you are finished. 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. Also - you may want to check one more spot to make sure I can view your website. Click on the image of the person with the giant + sign next to their head - in the top right corner (to the left of the blue Publish button). Make sure that under "General Access" and "Published Site" that the drop-down option is set to "Public" or no one is seeing anything. Click here to see what that pop-up menu should look like.
If it takes you longer than an hour to complete this activity, please text or email me (don't count the time it takes to pick out a picture and add 30 minutes if you're a perfectionist.)
Post your contact information, including your new portfolio address, to this form. Please note - your portfolio address will be similar to: https://sites.google.com/view/whateveryounamedyoursite
**Before you start on this task, you'll need to follow the instructions for purchasing access to our textbook (which is an online resource site). You can find those instructions on our Syllabus. If you have any issues accessing the text once you’ve purchased it, please contact me for assistance. You aren't using it yet - but I want to make sure you can access it before we start the next unit (when you will definitely start using it). I'm currently waiting on information about a discount code - so if there isn't a discount code listed here - wait to order your book.
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It is always difficult to strike a balance between understanding how to use 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. And make sure to complete the reading response form linked below when you finish all the readings (you may even want to view the form before you start reading so you know what you're being asked to do with the readings).
Reading 1: Howland, J., & Jonassen, D. (2012). Meaningful learning with technology (4th ed.). Boston: Pearson. Ok - I know it's an older article and you were probably in elementary school when it was written but it's still good information. 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.
AI Caution:I dropped this article into Notebook LM thinking it would be a great way to organize readings for the semester - but the AI-generated summary of the article had multiple mistakes. It couldn't even extract the 5 characteristics of meaningful learning (you could have probably done that back in 2012 when this article was written) and it gets some really important ideas and acronyms wrong. I'd suggest old schooling it and actually reading the article. Unless you want to trust AI with summarizing everything (ask me about my last medical appt where AI put in the office notes that I had a suspected brain aneurysm - um, I definitely don't). AI is great for lots of things and we'll use it for sure this semester. But don't let it read and think for you. So much of your learning comes from personally summarizing things you've actually read.
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: Universal Design for Learning: What is it? Read about that here. Then, view the actual guidelines here. (If you want to print a copy of the guidelines since we'll use them all semester - you can access a printable chart here.) Hopefully, you've noticed the phrase "learner agency" - it's is one of my favorite educational terms. There is some discussions of it in this set of readings but I'd really recommend you take a few minutes to explore that phrase on your own and see what you come up with (I'll ask you about it a bit later). Use AI if you have to, but if this is a new term for you, it's really important that you have an understanding of what it means and why it matters (and it might explain why you've been successful in some classes and not other and why some classes were your "favorite").
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. It's important to note that these standards are not a checklist of technology skills but a framework to support lifelong learning. This is a good one to print out for later (you can access a pdf of all of the by adding your email to the box in the upper right corner of this page - but we'll just use the Student Standards this semester). You can read more about ISTE here.
Reading Response: Once you've completed the three readings, take a few minutes to answer these questions.
If you are currently enrolled in the Learning, Design, and Technology undergraduate certificate or you are interested in enrolling - please complete this short form.
Please make sure to call or email me if you have questions or concerns at any point in these tasks. No need to email me once you're finished. Unit 2 tasks will be posted by Monday, January 19th at noon (but you can ignore them until Tuesday since it's a holiday - I'm just trying to stick to the Monday schedule to reduce due date confusion) and I'll get grades for Unit 1 posted as soon as possible.