Course Overview

Intended Audience

Expectations and Grading

Final Projects

Required and Recommended Texts

Additional Assistance

Class Directory

Useful Resources

Weekly Agendas

WWW-BASED PORTFOLIO (15% of your grade): You will be expected to create and maintain a WWW-based electronic portfolio that documents your progress in this course. By the end of class, your portfolio will contain an online resume, you weekly assignments in the class, and your final project. The design and format for your portfolio is completely up to you. One reason why you do electronic portfolios is to give you some practical experience with designing and using the web to communicate. Note, that other students (and people you do not know) will be able to access your portfolio.

Weekly Homework (55% of your grade). Weekly homework will usually consist of some assigned reading (I'm still trying to gather resources and identify a textbook) and an assigned essay that will typically asks you evaluate an educational technology. The goal of these essays is to learn to critically evaluate the potential benefits and pitfalls of using technology in education. You'll be typically asked to write 2-3 pages that address the following questions about the technology:

What model of learning and teaching does the technology assume?	What role does the technology play in facilitating learning?
What does the technology do better than traditional or alternative approaches?	What is the role of this teacher and the technology in the classroom?
What new problems does this technology introduce?	What demands does the technology placed upon teachers and students?

You should address each question directly in your essay. Good grades are assigned to essays that are thoughtful, reflective, and complete. See the Essay on Teleweb as an example.

Final Project (30%): Students will work alone or in pairs to study an educational use of technology. Students will propose their group compositions and topics of study. Students will turn in their projects (typically a 15 page paper), and present their work to the class in the final two weeks of class.

Weekly Attendance: In general, the weekly assignments are related to what happens during classroom activities. Therefore, it is important that you attend all the classes. If you miss more than one week without a good excuse, your grade will be reduced by half of a letter grade for each additional absence.