Educational Technology I:
Productivity Tools
Spring Semester, 1997
Course number: EDDV 186
Credits: 1 credit
Instructor: Gary A. Feurer
Room WHL 301B
Phone: 831-2751
email: feurer@udel.edu
Office Hours: 9:00-11:00, Tues. and Thurs.
Description || Texts
|| Requirements || Assignments
|| Teams
|| Addresses
Description
Intended for students in the freshman or sophomore year of the Elementary
Teacher Education program, this course provides a grounding in basic computing
concepts and the personal productivity tools generally available to users
of personal computers with a connection to the outside world. Students
will learn to use electronic mail, word processing, databases, and spreadsheets.
Readings, discussions, and a written assignment will cover some of the
social and ethical issues raised by computing and computer-mediated communication:
equitable access to resources; intellectual property and copyright; hacking
and computer theft; and the preservation and invasion of privacy in electronic
documents.
Texts
- Using Electronic Communication on UNIX Systems Computing and
Network Services, University of Delaware, n.d.
- An Introduction to Computing Using ClarisWorks®, Presley,
Brown and Malfas, Lawrenceville Press, 1994 (CW)
- Responsible Computing: A Student Manual, University of Delaware
(to be distributed in class)
Requirements
In addition to attending class, students are expected to complete weekly
reading assignments in preparation for each class meeting, and, for most
weeks, a computer-based laboratory activity building on the lecture. Lab
activities are to be completed before the next week's class. The course
grade will be based on the following:
- Graded laboratory activities. Throughout the semester there
will be regularly assigned, graded computer-based lab activities related
to class lectures and laboratory experiences. Each activity is due at the
next class meeting.
Work for these assignments is to be done on a individual
basis, not in groups or in collaboration with another person. Sharing
work on the lab assignments is a form of academic dishonesty.
Procedures for turning in work:
Work submitted on paper must have your name printed (not hand-written)
in the upper right-hand corner. This should be followed by your section
number and the assignment identifier.
Work submitted electronically should be put on the MAC volume of the ITC
file server, which you have access to in the computer classrooms in WHL
203-I and WHL 309.
Put your homework on this path:
MAC: Ed Tech I: Homework: [Your section number]
Name the file using your last name, a comma, then your first name, then
the assignment identifier. All this will be demonstrated in class.
- Report. You and one or two team members
will be assigned a reading about the ethical and societal issues posed
by information technology. These readings are on reserve in the Education
Resource Center on the first floor of the Willard Hall Education Building.
Some readings are on-line and will be accessed via the World Wide Web.
Your team will write a 500-word summary of the article, e-mail it to the
instructor and your classmates, and lead a short (5- to 10-minute) class
discussion about the issue(s) addressed. Each team will be assigned a class
meeting during which it will present its report. The appendix to this syllabus
explains the details of how this process is to work. Click
Here for Teams.
- Mid-Term Exam. A short exam will be administered during the
7th class meeting.
- Final exam.
Topics and Assignments
Weeks 1 - 3: Basic Tools and Issues
1. Fundamental concepts of computing: hardware, software,
and data.
- Reading: CW,Chapter 1
- Lab Activity (BT1): Send an E-mail message to your instructor.
Create a username as demonstrated in class. If you have not done this before,
refer to Using Electronic Communication on UNIX Systems, Introduction
to Pine sections 1, 2, and 3A. or the online
documentation.
2. E-mail and the World Wide Web.
Introduction to Claris works. Saving and retrieving documents.
3. The MAC operating system and introduction to ClarisWorks.
Saving and retrieving files.
- Reading: CW, Chapter 2.
- Lab Activity (BT3): CW, Chapter 2: work through Practice 1 through
Practice 7. Hand in on paper exercise 12. See the instructions for
handing in paper assignments on page two of this syllabus. Copy the Research
document to your floppy disk and work with this. Make sure you save
this exercise on a floppy disk as you will need the file again.
Weeks 4 - 6: Word Processing
4. Word Processing I.
Formatting a document: margins, tabs, fonts, headers, footers.
- Reports: Team 1 presents 5-minute report and leads 5-minute discussion.
- Reading: CW, Chapter 3.
- Lab Activity (WP1): CW, Chapter 3: work through Practice 1 through
Practice 11. Hand in on paper exercise 12. See the instructions
for handing in paper assignments on page two of this syllabus. Make sure
you save this exercise on a floppy disk as you will need the file again.
5. Word Processing II.
Power tools: cut, copy, paste, find, spell check, thesaurus, footnotes,
columns.
- Reports: Team 2 presents a 5-minute report and leads a 5-minute discussion.
- Reading: CW, Chapter 4.
- Lab Activity (WP2): CW, Chapter 4: complete Practice 1 through
Practice 10. Hand in on paper exercise 4. See the instructions for
handing in paper assignments on page two of this syllabus.
6. Word processing III.
Importing graphics. Importing unformatted text. Hidden characters. Finding
and replacing hidden characters.
- Reports: Team 3 presents a 5-minute report and leads a 5-minute discussion.
- Reading: CW, Chapter 12.
- Lab Activity (WP3): Download a file from the World Wide Web.
Use ClarisWorks to format it so that the margins change from what they
were originally. Add a header and a footer, appropriate font changes for
emphasis, and at least one paragraph set apart by right and left indents.
Include a picture (from the World Wide Web, or a clip art collection, or
your own drawing, or scanned art). Important: there must be no unnecessary
line breaks in your document, no spaces used where tabs would be better,
and no tabs used where paragraph indenting would be better. There must
be no misspelled words that the Claris works spell checker will catch.
Submit your formatted document electronically, as well as printed
on paper. Make sure your name appears inside the document before you save
it.
To “hand in” your homework electronically, follow the instructions on
page two of this syllabus. Use the assignment identifier “WP3.” In other
words, if your name is Stacey Higgins, your file name will be “Higgins
Stacey WP3.”
Week 7
7. Mid-term Exam.
- Reports: Team 4 presents a 5-minute report and leads a 5-minute discussion.
Weeks 8- 9: Graphics Programs
8. Graphics programs I.
Using the ClarisWorks drawing programs. The basic drawing tools. Selecting,
copying and pasting. Grouping objects.
- Reports: Team 5 presents a 5-minute report and leads a 5-minute discussion.
- Lab Activity (GP1): Create a drawing that you would use for
publicity in a school fund-rasing event like a bake sale. Your drawing
should at minimum contain a rectangle, a circle, a regular polygon (like
a hexagon or octagon), and some text in an interesting font. Some of the
figures should be shaded or patterned. Print your drawing and hand in on
paper. Be sure that your name and section appears ayt the top of the drawing.
9. Graphics programs I.
Using the ClarisWorks paint programs. The differences between drawing and
painting.
- Reports: Team 6 presents a 5-minute report and leads a 5-minute discussion.
- Lab Activity (GP2): Modify the file you downlaoded from the
from the World Wide Web in the assignment for week 6. Use the ClarisWorks
paint tools change its appearance by adding a border, changing colors,
and adding new text. Print your paitning and hand in on paper. Be sure
that your name and section appears ayt the top of the drawing.
Weeks 10 - 11: Spreadsheets
10. Spreadsheets I.
Fundamental concepts of spreadsheets.Opening and saving a spreadsheet.
Moving around a spreadsheet. Using formulas and functions for calculations.
Printing.
- Reports: Team 9 presents a 5-minute report and leads a 5-minute discussion.
- Reading: CW, Chapter 8.
- Lab Activity (SS1): CW, Chapter 8: Work through Practice 1 through
Practice 8. Complete CW, Chapter 8, Exercise 3. You should replace the
data given in the example with different data of your own choosing. Add
some additional months. Print your completed spreadsheet. Also, choose
the Options|Display to display formulas and print the spreadsheet with
the formulas displayed. Hand in both on paper to your instructor
11. Spreadsheets II.
Types of data and formatting the contents of cells. Relative and absolute
copying. Inserting rows and columns.
- Reports: Team 10 presents a 5-minute report and leads a 5-minute discussion.
- Reading: CW, Chapter 9.
- Lab Activity (SS1): CW, Chapter 9: Work through Practice 1 through
Practice 8. Complete CW, Chapter 9, Exercise 5, parts a, b, c, d and e.
Extra credit will be given if you use absolute referencing to a cell to
ge the values for the price and the cost. Print your completed spreadsheet.
Also, choose Options|Display to display formulas and print the spreadsheet
with the formulas displayed. Hand in both on paper to your instructor.
Weeks 12 - 13: Database Management Programs
12. Database management programs I.
Introduction to database management programs. Fields and records. Planning
a database. Creating a database, adding records, and saving to disk.
- Reports: Team 7 presents a 5-minute report and leads a 5-minute discussion.
- Reading: CW, Chapter 5.
- Lab Activity (DB1): CW, Chapter 5: Work through Practice 1 through
Practice 7. Complete CW, Chapter 5, Exercise 2. Be sure that you have included
sufficiently diverse records that the result of your Find search is not
all of the records. Print your completed database as well as the results
of your Find search and hand them in to your instructor.
13. Database management programs II.
Querying a database. Sorting records Designing layouts and labels.
- Reports: Team 8 presents a 5-minute report and leads a 5-minute discussion.
- Reading: CW, Chapter 6, Sections 6.9, 6.10, 6.11, 6.12, 6.13, 7.8.
- Lab Activity (DB2): Be sure to copy the Country database file
from the Ed Tech I\Data folder to your own floppy disk and work with this
copy. Complete the written exercise on querying databases that was distributed
in the lecture.
Appendix: Topics for Student Reports
Students will work in teams of two or three. Each team is responsible
for reading one from a list of articles to be distributed at the first
class meeting and reporting on it to the class. Each team will prepare
a 500 word summary of the article or chapter read and send it to all members
of the class and the instructor by E-mail at least two days before the
class meeting on which your team will present. You should also prepare
a printed, word-processed version of your summary that is handed in to
your instructor. All team members are expected to attend and to have something
to say if called upon. All class members are expected to have read the
report of the week before coming to class and should be prepared to participate
in the class discussion.
Team Assignments