Module One

Instructional Technology 6232 60

Module #1: IntroductionsINSTTECH 6232 Selection and Integration of Instructional Technologies 

Selection and Integration of Instructional Technologies is designed to focus on creating effective educational settings through the selection and integration of instructional technologies to support learning. This will involve evaluating existing learning situations and then using those insights to identify and implement appropriate instructional technologies for your target audience. Palloff and Pratt (2007), remind us that "Key to the learning process are the interactions among students themselves . . . and the collaboration in learning that results from these interactions" (p.4).  SO, if we are to develop an effective Distributed Learning Community, we must get to know one another. I know many of you already know each other from class(es) you have taken together, but I am new to the group and perhaps a few others are as well. With that in mind, you will be creating a multimedia introduction of yourself. Assignment 1: Getting to Know You  Assignment 1 - Part 1 (Due 10/19) To begin building our learning community, you will create a multimedia introduction of yourself to share with the class. You will post a link to your introduction in the Getting to Know You discussion area. You will find a link to this discussion area in the Module #1 folder in Blackboard Learn. Some things to Consider Including: Your professional experience; Your area of interest; Your family (past, present and future); Your technological specialties; The technologies you use and those you have access to using;  Your passion(s) in learning and teaching; What you hope to learn in this course (Please don't use this as a checklist for the questions you answer. This was provided to demonstrate the diversity of options you have open to you.)   It would be great if your introduction included some of your personal philosophy about technologies and education. You may use any multimedia tool(s) you wish, but your introductions must include at least some text and some images. I am posting here a couple of rather weak examples by me. Here is an introduction I made using PhotoPeach (http://photopeach.com): Here is an introduction I made using Animoto. It is best if you sign up for an Education account at Animoto so you can make longer videos for free! http://animoto.com/education Assignment 1 Part 1 - Assessment Post a link to your FINAL introduction in the Blackboard Learn Module One section labeled for submission of introductions for grades  (NOTE: this is in addition to posting your link in the discussion forum. You may want to wait to see your classmates' comments to determine if you wish to edit your work prior to submitting it for a grade. Your submission in this section will be graded for a maximum score of 20 points) Assignment 1 - Part 2 (Due 10/21) Provide a meaningful response to at least 3 of your classmates' introductions. Please respond with meaningful responses where you might even share something about yourself to connect with them. It would be great if you would look to see which discussions (introductions) don't have many comments and choose to comment on those first... no one wants to be left out! Your comments should be something more than "Oh Hi. Looks like you do cool things. I look forward to working with you." OR "cool technology tool." A more appropriate response might be "Betty Sue, you sound like you have a full life. Where do you find the time for wind surfing AND Karate AND teaching? I know that I really enjoy spending some time playing guitar by myself but I don't spend enough time doing it." or "Frank, your goal of becoming a technology integration specialist for Cedar Falls Community School District sounds exciting. Your teaching for 12 years at the elementary levels will be quite helpful for such a position."or "I saw in your introduction you have lots of iPads in your classroom, we are getting some this winter, how should I prepare?" -- and following through with the conversation rather than looking at this as an assignment is even better! Assignment 1 - Part 2 - Assessment Your comments will be worth a maximum of 5 points.    Assignment 2: Surveys Surveys (Due 10/19) Creating an effective learning environment requires us to know our students. To that end, there is a set of surveys for you to complete to help better inform me about you. You will find a link to these initial surveys in the Module #1 content folder. Assignment 2 - Assessment Thoughtful completion of the surveys is scored to a maximum of 5 points. References Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2007). Building online learning communities: Effective strategies for the virtual classroom (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.