Course Requirements
EDUC 818: Educational Technology Foundations
This course focuses on discovering your foundations and articulating the educational technology standards and leadership goals that inform your design of an ed tech website that you submit as your final project at the end of the course. Thus, the course requirements revolve around you and the nature of the ed tech standards and leadership model you adopt.
Participants are expected to spend at least twelve hours per week studying books and articles in the educational technology knowledge base, practicing web design, and working on projects.
In the sidebar is a list of the specific assignments and how much they count toward your grade in the course. You can think of these assignments as consisting of three major parts. First is class participation. You create a goal statement and share it with your fellow classmates, with whom you communicate in the course discussion forum. The second major part of your grade is determined by a presentation that you make in class on an evening of your choosing. The rest of your grade is determined by your final project, which you submit at the end of the course.
Assignment #1: Goal Statement
Your first assignment is to state the reasons why you enrolled in this course and what you hope to accomplish by taking it. Please describe what the term "educational technology" means to you, and in that context, tell why you decided to take this course and state briefly what you hope to get out of it. If you have only a general idea right now, go ahead and describe your goals in general terms. If you have more specific goals in mind, please enumerate them. I will use this information to help advise you and guide you through the appropriate course materials.
Assignment #2: Weekly Discussion Forum
Every student in this class is required to participate actively in the course discussion forum. To enter the discussion forum, log on to the course and choose the Discussions option. One of the first messages you write in the forum should respond to the Welcome message in which classmates introduce yourselves to one another. The discussion forum is an excellent place to network with your fellow students and form teams in which you can work together to create your projects. During the course, two "graded discussions" will appear in your Canvas discussions menu. Follow this link to see the rubric that your instructor uses to grade your discussion posts. In order to earn all the points for the discussion assignment, you must be sure to:
- Participate actively all throughout the course, posting something thoughtful at least once per week.
- Interact with your fellow classmates and refer to their opinions.
- Refer to the assigned readings and explain how they inform your thinking about educational technology leadership.
- Respond effectively to each one of the "graded discussions" that will appear on your Canvas discussions menu as the course progresses.
Assignment #3: Presentation Topic
As an enriching part of the course, you (individually or with a partner) will be responsible for presenting one of these ed tech tools or environments (or one of your choice if approved by the instructor). New technologies become obsolete very quickly. The purpose of this activity is therefore twofold: First, it will enable you to enhance your skills by exploring a technology-enhanced learning environment or tool that you haven't seen before. Second, it will help you develop your skills as instructor / trainer / leader. If you are already proficient in using an ed tech tool you feel passionate about advocating for expanded use, you may propose presenting about a tool with which you have experience and you want to share how you use it as an example for your fellow classmates to consider emulating. As you prepare for making your presentation, here are some things you need to keep in mind:
- Provide an overview of the ed tech tool or environment including hardware requirements, appropriate age-level, pricing, publication date, etc.
- If appropriate, download and install the appropriate plug-in on your computer and acquire all necessary passwords.
- Identify the key features of the ed tech tool or environment and discuss how they support (or do not support) the principles of how people learn.
- Try to prepare an interactive presentation. For example, you can create some role playing activities for your classmates, pretend that you are introducing the tool or environment to a group of teachers who are considering adoption, use a formative assessment app such as Kahoot or Poll Everywhere to assess what your fellow students learned, etc.
- Remember to focus on leadership. How can the tool or environment you are presenting foster ed tech leadership in your school or workplace? What role does it play in your respective leadership framework, such as ISTE, PSEL, NETP, ELCC, NELP, or other appropriate leadership standards? How can it help you meet the Essential Conditions for Learning?
In response to the Presentation Topic assignment, please indicate which ed tech tool or environment you would like to present, and give one or two preferred class dates when you would like to make your presentation. If you are taking the course online, you have the option of presenting remotely via the classroom videoconferencing stream, or you can come physically to class on the evening when you present.
Assignment #4: Presentation Delivery
This is where your instructor will grade the presentation of your chosen ed tech tool or environment. Your grade will be determined as follows:
- Provides a clear description of the ed tech tool or environment: 5 points
- Articulates how it helps leaders foster the Essential Conditions for Learning : 7 points
- Is coherent, organized and professional: 3 points
- Has the participation of all group members: 3 points
- Is interactive and involves the audience: 2 points
When you respond to this presentation assignment, choose the option to submit your PowerPoint file or other form of presentation outline that you created when preparing your talk.
Assignment #5: Final Project Idea
Most students in this course create their final project as a website using freely available tools such as the New Google Sites, WordPress, or Wix. If you have never created a website, you may find it helpful working through these video tutorials about Creating Webs with New Google Sites. In submitting your final project idea, take these considerations into account:
- Make your project be something you feel passionate about doing.
- Provide some background literature on your chosen topic.
- Identify the professional standards, leadership framework, or learning principles that inform your project's design.
- Describe the characteristics of your target audience, their needs and any prior knowledge required.
- State your educational objectives, i.e., what you expect learners/users to learn or experience as a result of using your project.
- If you are an Ed.D. doctoral candidate seeking administrative certification, you must make your project be the creation of a technology plan. See the rubric that Dr. Hofstetter uses to rate your technology plan for program assessment purposes.
- If you are not seeking administrative certification, you do not need to make your project be a technology plan. The key word in choosing a topic is passion: make your project be something you feel truly passionate about doing.
- If you are an Ed.D. candidate, consider creating your final project in such a way that it can count as one of the artifacts in your Educational Leadership Portfolio (ELP).
- Before submitting this Assignment, prepare one paragraph that outlines your idea. Unless your project needs to be kept confidential, post your paragraph in the Canvas Discussions and invite your fellow classmates to comment and provide suggestions about your idea. Note: Posting a paragraph in the Discussions is only part of this Assignment. In addition to posting this paragraph in the Discussions, you must also respond to the submission prompt in the Assignment itself.
Assignment #6: Final Project Submission
This is where you submit the HTTP web address of your final project for Dr. Hofstetter to review and grade. If you created your project with a learning management system, create a login for Dr. Hofstetter and when you click Submit Assignments to submit your project for a grade, submit the HTTP Web address of your project's login page along with login instructions explaining how Dr. Hofstetter should log on to your project. Note: If you are an Ed.D. doctoral candidate seeking administrative certification, you must make your project be the creation of a technology plan. See the rubric that Dr. Hofstetter uses to rate your technology plan for program assessment purposes.
Assignment #7: Course Evaluation
Your final assignment in this course is to evaluate it. Toward the end of the course, you will receive an email from the School of Education sent to your udel.edu email address. This email tells you when the course evaluation window is open. You must log on to the course evaluation system within this window of time. The Web address of the course evaluation system is www.udel.edu/course-evals. After you complete the course evaluation, your instructor will give you credit for completing it. The responses you give are completely anonymous. While your instructor will be able to see the ratings and comments, it is impossible for your instructor to identify the person who gave a certain rating or made a given comment. Once you complete the evaluation, your grade on this assignment will be an automatic A.
Assignment Policies
- In all of these assignments, you should draw heavily on course readings. Even though your instructor is interested in hearing your individual opinion, you must also explain how the course readings and relevant studies support your opinion.
- Professionalism is important. Grammar, spelling, style, organization, and clarity count.
- You are expected to cite all references in APA format. If you do not know how to cite in APA, you can get the APA "Manual of Style" from the UD Bookstore.
- You are welcome to ask the instructor for feedback prior to submitting any assignment.
- All assignments need to be submitted on the specific due dates. Late work will not be accepted except under special circumstances such as illness or prior permission from the instructor.
- Academic Integrity: You are expected to be honest in all of your academic work. Be sure to review the University of Delaware's policy regarding academic honesty by following this link to www.udel.edu/stuguide/22-23/code.html.
