Course Assignments:

Ongoing:

• Class readings - Read and think about what’s listed for each class session well BEFORE arriving for the class session. Consider blogging about it...
• Active in-class participation and Homework (6 points) - Come to class...what we do is hard to make up. If you absolutely can't get to class, let me know and make arrangements to get notes. Excessive tardiness and/or absences will be reflected in the final grade.
• Online Professional Learning Community Participation (24 points) - You will participate in an online professional learning community where you will blog and participate in online discussion forums. You can view the assessment rubric.

One-Time Assignments:

• Group VoiceThread (Due Oct. 8) - 10 points
• Technology Inventory - (Due Nov. 10) - 10 points
• Technology Expert (Due Nov. 24) – 10 points
• Technology Lesson Plan/Design Team Project (Brief presentation: Due Dec. 3; Final project: Due Dec. 12) – 30 points
• Electronic portfolio (Due Dec. 5) – 10 points

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Group VoiceThread (Due October 8, 10 points)
You will work with another student to create a VoiceThread about integrating technology in the curriculum. It could be something to use in your classroom or something for adults. The VoiceThread should have 3 to 5 slides. . It will be assessed on the following elements:

• Content: appropriate content choice covered in-depth (5 points)
• Encourage discussion (3 points)
• Appropriate graphics (1 point)
• Few glitches (1 points)

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Technology Inventory (Due November 10, 10 points)
The purpose of this assignment is to help you navigate technology in your placement school. Using the list below, find out as much as you can about technology in your school and school division. You might want to take a few digital pictures or even a little digital video to add to your presentation.

Information to be included:

• How to access computers, software and other digital devices
• How to get technical help
• How to get professional development help
• How to meet the TSIP requirements

You will be creating a narrated presentation about technology in your school, using features available in VoiceThread, PowerPoint or PhotoStory. The presentation should be self running and include a mix of text, graphics, and narration. The audience for this is a new teacher who needs to know who to talk to, what kind of tech is available, and how to access it. There is no slide requirement...just include as much information as you feel is necessary. Grades for this project will be based on the helpfulness of the slide show for a new teacher including the quantity and quality of information.

• Content: appropriate information (5 points)
• Organization: presentation is well-organized and easy to follow (2 points)
• Narration: narration is clear and well-rehearsed (2 points)
• Technical: very few glitches (1 point)

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Technology Expert (Due November 24, 10 points)
You will be introduced to a variety of different technologies and ways of thinking about using technology in the classroom throughout the semester. For this assignment, you will choose one of those technologies and become the expert. You will make recommendations for how the technology could be used in different content areas and collect web resources related to the technology.

Your "deliverable" will be a tech expert module that will be made publicly available through the Connexions Web site - both for your classmates and the larger ed tech community world-wide.

You may work alone or with a partner on this project. To develop your module you should proceed through the following suggested sequence of steps:

1. Identify a particular technology tool or resource that seems particularly promising for your teaching. To ensure that we don't have any duplicate modules for this class, please post your idea here prior to beginning any substantive work.
2. Once you've selected a tool or resource, take time to explore your topic in depth (to the point where you'd feel comfortable answering substantive questions on the topic from a colleague). In this exploration, you should EITHER create some type of help sheet (preferably including screen shots) that would help a new user to become familiar with the essential steps and functions of the tool/resource or create links to effective help sheets you've found online. View this module as an example of appropriate depth/detail.
3. Now that you've become an expert on the operational aspects of the tool/resource, you will now need to explore classroom-based examples of how teachers have implemented the tool or resource. Ideally, these examples will be from your grade level and content area, although this is not necessary. After you have explored many examples, select four of the best examples and create a brief description of each implementation with a link to the write-up of the lesson project you found online.
4. After exploring the tool or resource in depth and examining classroom examples, please develop an annotated list of the affordances and constraints of the tool or resource. In other words, what value might it add to the classroom and what might teachers need to be wary of in incorporating the tool or resource into their teaching.
5. Finally create a short list of tips that teachers might consider in implementing the tool or resource into their teaching. Try to keep this as concise as possible while still being useful for the teacher.

You'll be publishing this to Connexions so you might want to read their instructions here. I would recommend using Microsoft Word to create your module.
Please post a link to your module on the class Tech Expert Module page.
Click here for the assessment rubric.

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Lesson Plan/Design Team Project (Brief presentation: Due December 3; Final project: Due December 12, 30 points)
Create something content-related with any of the tools we've used in class: a multimedia presentation, digital video, website, or webquest and embed it in a lesson plan.

Because you will each be doing something different, grades will be based generally on the following criteria:

• Appropriate use of technology
• Curriculum aligned
• Age appropriate
• Creativity

In order to choose the design project you will create, you should identify an instructional problem or opportunity that could be addressed using value-added technology. The purpose of this assignment is for you to identify a range of instructional problems/opportunities you are seeing in your school placements and collaboratively plan a solution/approach that leverages the unique affordances of a particular (or combination) of technology tool/resource affordances. You will create a product that can (and hopefully, will) be in your practica or student teaching experience. Then, you will write the lesson plan that will encompass your project.

Step One: Identify instructional challenges or opportunities where you think the integration of technology might help make a difference. These challenges and opportunities can come from your own observations or in discussion with your cooperating teachers. In your self-selected group (not necessarily by content area, although this may be beneficial), you will debate the ways that technology might add value in each of these scenarios. You will then collaboratively develop a project plan that outlines the instructional challenge/opportunity, the instructional objective(s), how you propose using technology, and the value you feel the technology adds. After consulting with me, you will begin to model how your chosen use of technology may help you address the challenge you've identified. Once you've developed a draft of model, you should then share this with your cooperating teachers and record (in notes) any feedback they share with you on the project. his includes writing the Lesson Plan:

Step Two: Develop the technology component. You can then begin to develop the technology component and any other ancillary materials required to implement the intervention in the classroom. This might be a teacher presentation or an example of a student project.

Step Three: Write the Lesson Plan: You will write a lesson plan in the format required by your methods instructor.

All this work you will turn in as a group.

The last component of the project is your individual statement of your work. In this one-page document, you will explain how you were involved in the group process, the value added of the technology you incorporated, your overall assessment of how your work might play out in the classroom, and any suggested areas for further work, revision, or enhancement. This project will count for 30% of your final grade.

This project will be assessed as follows:

• Identification of Challenge: 10 points
• Appropriate Technology Component: 10 points
• Lesson Plan: 5 points
• Individual Statement: 5 points

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Electronic Portfolio (Due December 5, 10 points)
In this assignment, your challenge is to create the framework for an electronic, web-based portfolio of your work as you move through the teacher preparation program at the College of William & Mary. While this portfolio will not be completed by the end of this semester, the expectation is that you have completed the following components in a clean, professional manner which you can then "flesh out" in your other courses.

By the end of the semester, you should create the framework of your efolio website based on the requirements of your methods instructor. In each area, the portfolio components may look a little different, but your portfolio must in some way provide space for you to link to artifacts which demonstrate your competency in each of the 30 student teaching competencies, and offer reflection (with embedded links to artifacts) on the six professional areas, and four components of the conceptual framework in the School of Education at the College of William & Mary. Please see this sample of a portfolio in progress.

As you move through your classes you can begin to write your reflective statements and link to artifacts (you will probably be able to use between 8-15 artifacts to connect to each competency and area). For the purposes of this class, your portfolio must:

• include a home page with a brief description of the purpose of your portfolio, some information on who you are, and a picture that represents you in some way (3 points);
• include links in the navigation bar to working pages (although they may be blank at this stage) for each area required by your methods instructor (2 points);
• include the appropriate page titles for each page (2 points);
• develop the Educational Technology page, linking to one or more artifacts for ISTE NETS-T standards 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (3 points).

We'll be using Wikispaces to develop our eportfolios. Directions and a sample can be found here. The efolio is worth 10% of your final course grade.