EDUC 675: The Beginning

EDUC 675 Sp. '08

Things have changed. The last time I taught 675 was in Spring term 2007 and we (Dr. Kilbane and I team taught the course) couldn't find an appropriate text for the course, the tools we wanted to use with students were scattered across the web and were of uneven quality and user friendliness. We experienced some 'do-overs' when a survey didn't return the results we were looking for, for example. This year we have a text that is up to date (as the printed word can be in the new era), and many of the tools we will use are clustered under the Google umbrella. If you are reading this you have undoubtedly been able to log into the Google world and now have a gmail account.

Good for you! The first project, and an ongoing one, is to create your own blog right here in blogger.com. This will be your course journal where you will enter weekly (or more often) accounts of your learning arc/ramp/spiral. You will be able to demonstrate and teach others what you have learned by writing about your journey AND by adding elements to your blog and by linking to interesting sites.

One really great thing about web tools is that they are 'self-teaching', that is, they have good step-by-step directions and often even video that explains how to create and use the various features. I encourage you to take advantage of all the provided instructions before asking for help from classmates or from me.

Welcome to a new world of teaching and learning. We will be fellow travelers on this vast highway to new ways of engaging students and to growing our own expertise. No one person can know/imagine what lies in wait on Web 2.0 but together we can explore, create, improvise, implement, authenticate, debunk better than any individual.